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

Expert System (AI) is changing education while making finding out more available however also stimulating disputes on its impact.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, engel-und-waisen.de especially with lots of trainees unable to safeguard their assignments or akropolistravel.com provided works.

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

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"I provided an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all used the exact same AI tool to produce their responses," he said.

He noted that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is specifically worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

"AI is a severe obstacle when it pertains to assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go online, create responses, and submit," he added.

Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated 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 function of AI in academic integrity and student advancement.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot weekly and library.kemu.ac.ke 1 billion messages sent out every day around the world.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly worried about students sending AI-generated projects without genuinely comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, just to deal with responding to basic questions when evaluated.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished projects, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education is about finding out, not just passing courses," he stated.

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

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply students utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even exam concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn use AI to create answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine knowing," he regreted.

Students' perspectives on usage

Students, on the other hand, say AI has 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 substantially helped her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, specifically when handling intricate topics," she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to submit her task, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, cadizpedia.wikanda.es strongly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively interesting by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are often reflected in exam questions.
"It's all about existing, focusing, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the lecturers do not get to go through them, but AI has also assisted me discover much faster."

Balancing AI 's function in education

Experts believe the option lies in AI literacy