Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more accessible but also stimulating arguments on its effect.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, specifically with many students not able to safeguard their assignments or offered works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses amongst trainees recounting a recent experience he had.
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"I gave a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all utilized the very same AI tool to produce their actions," he said.
He kept in mind that this trend is common amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is specifically concerning in part-time and range learning programs.
"AI is a major challenge when it comes to assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and send," he added.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.
This dispute raises critical concerns about the role of AI in academic integrity and student development.
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.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University speakers are significantly concerned about students submitting AI-generated tasks without truly comprehending the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees increasingly counting on ChatGPT, only to battle with responding to standard concerns when checked.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished projects, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating because education is about finding out, not simply passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be entirely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A top-notch trainee is a superior student, AI or not, but that does not imply they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, however it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even test concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine knowing," he lamented.
Students' viewpoints on use
Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually improved their learning experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, specifically when handling complex topics," she described.
However, she remembered an instance when she utilized AI to submit her task, just for her lecturer to instantly recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his impressive grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers highlight in class, as they are typically reflected in exam questions.
"It's everything about being present, taking note, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers don't get to check out them, however AI has actually likewise helped me learn much faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the service depends on AI literacy; mentor trainees and speakers how to utilize AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the value of a well balanced technique that maintains human participation while utilizing AI to enhance learning results.
"As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is essential that we prioritise human company in education. We need to guarantee that AI enhances, rather than replaces, educators' essential role in shaping young minds," he said
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, attended to growing issues relating to making use of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, emphasized the need for forum.batman.gainedge.org care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and schools towards including AI tools in discovering environments. She recognized 2 main factors why AI tools are prevented in educational settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, discussing that AI doesn't deal with specific mentor approaches.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, often without correct attribution
"A great deal of individuals need to understand, like I stated, this is data that has actually been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence means that is another person's documentation," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI advancement understood as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not factual.
"Hallucination implied that it was highlighting details from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She suggested "grounding" AI by providing it with specific info to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI provides a chance to leapfrog standard instructional techniques.
- She believes that consistently strengthening key details helps individuals keep in mind and avoid making mistakes when faced with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the exact same thing over and over once again, when they will make the mistakes, then they'll remember."
She likewise empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that many schools must attend to individuals and procedure elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class tasks and ghetto-art-asso.com tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily use projects to make sure trainees supply original work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this approach tough.
"If you set complicated concerns, students will not be able to utilize AI to get direct answers," he discussed.
He highlighted the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting examination questions that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle 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, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the guideline of AI in education, recommending institutions to investigate algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical standards, protect user information, and filter unsuitable material.
- It worries the need to evaluate the long-lasting impact of AI on vital skills like thinking and imagination while creating policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends implementing age restrictions for GenAI usage to safeguard more youthful trainees and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For governments, it advised adopting a collaborated nationwide technique to regulating GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing data defense and personal privacy laws. It stresses assessing AI threats, imposing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide information ownership.
