1 Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education while making finding out more available but likewise stimulating arguments on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic integrity, specifically with lots of students unable to safeguard their assignments or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed aggravation over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses amongst students stating a current experience he had.

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"I provided a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact very same responses. These students did not even know each other, but they all utilized the exact same AI tool to create their actions," he said.

He noted that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is specifically worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a serious challenge when it pertains to assignments. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just browse the web, create responses, and send," he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.

This argument raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one country had actually released guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent out every day worldwide.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are increasingly worried about trainees sending AI-generated tasks without truly understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly counting on ChatGPT, just to battle with addressing standard concerns when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek assignments, but when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing because education has to do with finding out, not just passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be totally associated to AI but admitted that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A first-rate student is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't suggest they do not cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, however it is making students reliant and less analytical," he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not simply students utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course lays out, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine learning," he regreted.

Students' point of views on usage

Students, surgiteams.com on the other hand, state AI has improved their knowing experience by making scholastic materials more understandable and wikitravel.org available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and bphomesteading.com providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more quickly, specifically when handling complicated topics," she discussed.

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

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and focusing on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in test questions.
"It's all about being present, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when facing several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers do not get to check out them, however AI has actually also helped me find out much faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the solution depends on AI literacy