Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more available but likewise triggering debates on its effect.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, especially with numerous trainees not able to protect their projects or offered works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions amongst trainees stating a current experience he had.
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"I gave a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific very same answers. These trainees did not even understand each other, but they all utilized the same AI tool to create their reactions," he said.
He kept in mind that this pattern is common among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically worrying in part-time and range knowing programs.
"AI is a major difficulty when it comes to projects. Many students no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, produce responses, and submit," he added.
Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This debate raises vital questions about the role of AI in academic stability 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 as of July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University lecturers are increasingly concerned about students submitting AI-generated assignments without really understanding the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with addressing standard questions when checked.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit refined projects, but when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with finding out, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of first-class graduates can not be completely associated to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A top-notch trainee is a superior student, AI or not, however that doesn't mean they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not simply students using AI lazily. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course lays out, marking schemes, and even test questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine learning," he lamented.
Students' perspectives on usage
Students, on the other hand, higgledy-piggledy.xyz say AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making academic materials more easy to understand and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, especially when handling intricate subjects," she discussed.
However, she remembered an instance when she utilized AI to send her project, only for her lecturer to immediately acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a superior degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and concentrating on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are typically reflected in exam concerns.
"It's all about being present, focusing, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he stated,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers do not get to check out them, but AI has also assisted me find out faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the option lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to utilize AI as a learning aid instead of a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the value of a well balanced approach that preserves human involvement while harnessing AI to improve discovering results.
"As we navigate the quickly progressing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is essential that we prioritise human company in education. We must guarantee that AI improves, rather than replaces, educators' important function in forming young minds," he stated
Dorcas Akintade, wiki.monnaie-libre.fr a cybersecurity change professional, dealt with growing concerns relating to the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the instructional system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the requirement for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools towards integrating AI tools in learning environments. She determined 2 primary reasons why AI tools are prevented in academic settings: security threats and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI does not accommodate particular teaching approaches.
Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing information, typically without correct attribution
"A great deal of individuals need to understand, like I stated, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence suggests that is another person's documents," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early concern in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce info that was not factual.
"Hallucination suggested that it was drawing out information from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.
She suggested "grounding" AI by supplying it with specific info to prevent such errors.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI presents a chance to leapfrog traditional academic techniques.
- She thinks that consistently enhancing crucial details assists individuals remember and avoid making errors when confronted with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the same thing over and over again, when they will make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."
She also empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that many schools ought to resolve individuals and procedure elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I mainly use projects to guarantee students provide original work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this technique difficult.
"If you set complex questions, trainees will not have the ability to utilize AI to get direct answers," he discussed.
He highlighted the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI can not easily fix while acknowledging that some speakers struggle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.
- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, accountability, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, encouraging organizations to investigate algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical standards, protect user information, and filter inappropriate content.
- It stresses the need to evaluate the long-term effect of AI on important abilities like thinking and creativity while developing policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO recommends executing age constraints for GenAI use to protect younger trainees and protect susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it advised embracing a collaborated national method to controling GenAI, consisting of establishing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing information defense and personal privacy laws. It emphasizes evaluating AI threats, enforcing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national data ownership.
