Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education while making finding out more accessible however also triggering disputes on its impact.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic integrity, especially with many trainees unable to defend their projects or offered works.

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

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"I provided a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all used the same AI tool to create their actions," he said.

He noted that this trend is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is particularly concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a severe challenge when it comes to tasks. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go online, produce responses, and send," he added.

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

This debate raises critical questions about the role of AI in academic stability and trainee advancement.

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

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot each week and utahsyardsale.com 1 billion messages sent out every day around the world.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are increasingly concerned about students submitting AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees progressively depending on ChatGPT, just to have problem with responding to basic questions when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit refined assignments, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with finding out, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be totally associated to AI but admitted that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A top-notch trainee is a top-notch student, AI or not, but that doesn't indicate they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he stated.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not simply trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, 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 eliminating real learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic products more understandable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me comprehend things more easily, particularly when dealing with intricate topics," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her job, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively appealing by asking questions and focusing on locations that speakers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in test questions.
"It's everything about existing, 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 straight from ChatGPT when facing several due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers do not get to check out through them, however AI has actually also assisted me learn faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the solution lies in AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to utilize AI as a help instead of a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, forum.altaycoins.com stressing the significance of a well balanced method that preserves human involvement while harnessing AI to improve finding out results.
"As we navigate the quickly evolving landscape of Expert system (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We need to ensure that AI improves, instead of changes, teachers' important function in shaping young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation expert, resolved growing issues regarding using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, however, stressed the need for caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools toward including AI tools in finding out environments. She determined two main factors why AI tools are discouraged in academic settings: galgbtqhistoryproject.org security threats 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 teachers.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, explaining that AI doesn't accommodate specific mentor approaches.

Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing information, often without correct attribution

"A lot of individuals require to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has 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 suggests that is another person's documentation," she warned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early concern in AI advancement understood as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce info that was not factual.
"Hallucination suggested that it was bringing out info from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.

She recommended "grounding" AI by providing it with particular details to avoid such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the solution, particularly when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog conventional instructional methods.

- She believes that regularly enhancing key details helps individuals remember and avoid making errors when faced with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform people the very same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."

She also empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, keeping in mind that many schools ought to attend to individuals and procedure aspects of this usage.

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

"If you set complicated questions, trainees will not be able to utilize AI to get direct responses," he described.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting examination concerns that AI can not quickly resolve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI misuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he said.

- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, advising institutions to investigate algorithms, information, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, systemcheck-wiki.de safeguard user information, and filter improper material.
- It stresses the need to evaluate the long-term impact of AI on important skills like thinking and imagination while developing policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO advises implementing age limitations for GenAI use to protect more youthful students and protect susceptible groups.
- For governments, it advised embracing a coordinated national technique to regulating GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing information defense and personal privacy laws. It emphasizes examining AI threats, enforcing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.