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1 Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making finding out more accessible but also stimulating debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing dependence on AI, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic integrity, especially with numerous trainees not able to protect their assignments or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed frustration over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among students stating a recent experience he had.

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"I offered a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact very same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all utilized the same AI tool to generate their reactions," he said.

He kept in mind that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is particularly worrying in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a major difficulty when it concerns assignments. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, produce responses, and submit," he included.

Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises crucial questions about the role of AI in scholastic integrity and student advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had released regulations on generative AI since July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day worldwide.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are significantly concerned about students sending AI-generated assignments without really understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees significantly relying on ChatGPT, just to deal with addressing basic concerns when checked.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit polished assignments, but when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education is about finding out, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be totally credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A superior trainee is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, but that doesn't imply they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even examination questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning," he regreted.

Students' perspectives on usage

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic products more reasonable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, especially when handling intricate topics," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her job, just for her lecturer to right away recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively appealing by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers emphasize in class, as they are often reflected in test questions.
"It's everything about being present, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when facing several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the speakers don't get to read through them, however AI has actually likewise assisted me find out much faster."

Balancing AI 's role in education

Experts think the service depends on AI literacy