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

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more available however also stimulating disputes on its impact.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, particularly with numerous trainees unable to defend their assignments or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed aggravation over the growing reliance on AI-generated reactions among trainees recounting a current experience he had.

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"I gave a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the specific very same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all used the very same AI tool to create their actions," he stated.

He kept in mind that this trend is common among both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is particularly concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.

"AI is a major difficulty when it concerns projects. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create answers, and send," he included.

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

This argument raises critical concerns about the function of AI in scholastic integrity and student advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, only one nation had actually launched guidelines on generative AI since July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot every week and gdprhub.eu 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are progressively worried about trainees sending AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly counting on ChatGPT, just to have problem with responding to standard questions when checked.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send refined assignments, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's frustrating due to the fact that education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be totally attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A superior trainee is a top-notch student, AI or not, but that does not suggest they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making students reliant and less analytical," he stated.

- Another speaker, garagesale.es Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course lays out, marking schemes, and even exam concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to create responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on use

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making academic products more understandable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, particularly when handling complex topics," she described.

However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to send her job, only for her speaker to right away acknowledge that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers highlight in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.
"It's everything about being present, paying attention, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers don't get to check out them, but AI has likewise assisted me learn quicker."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the option depends on AI literacy