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

Expert System (AI) is transforming education while making discovering more available but also triggering arguments on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic integrity, especially with numerous students unable to safeguard their tasks or provided works.

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

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"I provided an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the exact very same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all used the exact same AI tool to generate their reactions," he stated.

He noted that this trend prevails among 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 think critically-they just go online, generate responses, and submit," he added.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and trainees turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.

This argument raises vital questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee development.

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

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are significantly worried about trainees sending AI-generated projects without genuinely understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees progressively counting on ChatGPT, only to struggle with responding to standard concerns when checked.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send sleek assignments, however when asked fundamental concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating because education has to do with learning, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of first-rate graduates can not be completely credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-rate student is a superior trainee, AI or not, but that does not mean they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical," he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not just students using AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even exam concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he lamented.

Students' point of views on use

Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me comprehend things more quickly, especially when dealing with intricate topics," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to submit her project, just for her speaker to instantly acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are often shown in test questions.
"It's all about existing, taking note, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my colleagues," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, disgaeawiki.info confesses to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the speakers do not get to check out through them, but AI has actually also assisted me discover much faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the solution depends on AI literacy