Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more available but likewise sparking debates on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, particularly with many students unable to protect their projects or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, higgledy-piggledy.xyz expressed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses amongst students stating a recent experience he had.

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"I gave a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact very same responses. These students did not even understand each other, however they all used the same AI tool to create their actions," he stated.

He noted that this pattern is common among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a major obstacle when it concerns assignments. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just browse the web, generate responses, and send," he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This debate raises critical questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee development.

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

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are progressively concerned about trainees sending AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, only to have problem with responding to standard concerns when evaluated.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send sleek projects, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of first-rate graduates can not be completely associated to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A superior trainee is a superior student, AI or not, however that does not mean they don't cheat. The advantages 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 different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees using AI lazily. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he lamented.

Students' point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has improved their knowing experience by making academic materials more reasonable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, especially when dealing with intricate topics," she explained.

However, links.gtanet.com.br she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her job, just for her speaker to right away recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers highlight in class, as they are often reflected in test concerns.
"It's all about being present, taking note, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when facing several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the lecturers don't get to review them, however AI has also helped me discover much faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy; mentor trainees 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 balanced technique that preserves human involvement while utilizing AI to improve discovering results.
"As we browse the quickly developing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is important that we prioritise human company in education. We need to guarantee that AI boosts, instead of replaces, teachers' vital function in forming young minds," he stated

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement expert, resolved growing concerns regarding using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential threats to the educational system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, however, stressed the need for care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools toward incorporating AI tools in finding out environments. She determined two primary reasons that AI tools are discouraged in academic settings: security threats and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond 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 stated, explaining that AI doesn't accommodate specific mentor methods.

Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing information, frequently without correct attribution

"A great deal of people require to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence means that is another person's documentation," she warned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would create information that was not accurate.
"Hallucination suggested that it was highlighting information from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.

She advised "grounding" AI by providing it with particular info to avoid such errors.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the option, particularly when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog traditional academic approaches.

- She thinks that regularly strengthening crucial information helps people keep in mind and avoid making mistakes when confronted with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform people the same thing over and over again, when they will make the mistakes, then they'll remember."

She also empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that numerous schools should address individuals and process aspects of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize tasks to guarantee students offer initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this method difficult.

"If you set complex concerns, students won't be able to utilize AI to get direct answers," he explained.

He highlighted the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting examination questions that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some speakers struggle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, accountability, and privacy at its core.
in a report calls for surgiteams.com the policy of AI in education, recommending institutions to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, protect user information, and filter unsuitable content.
- It worries the requirement to evaluate the long-lasting effect of AI on important skills like believing and imagination while creating policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO suggests executing age restrictions for GenAI use to secure more youthful trainees and secure susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it encouraged adopting a collaborated nationwide method to managing GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing information defense and personal privacy laws. It stresses evaluating AI risks, implementing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national information ownership.