Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making finding out more available but also triggering arguments on its effect.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, especially with many trainees unable to protect their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed aggravation over the growing reliance on AI-generated actions among trainees stating a recent experience he had.
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"I offered an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific same answers. These students did not even understand each other, however they all used the very same AI tool to create their responses," he said.
He kept in mind that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.
"AI is a serious challenge when it pertains to assignments. Many students no longer believe critically-they simply browse the web, generate answers, and send," he added.
Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This dispute raises crucial questions about the function of AI in academic integrity and student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, just one nation had launched policies on generative AI since July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people using the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day worldwide.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University lecturers are progressively worried about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without truly understanding the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with answering standard questions when checked.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek assignments, however when asked standard concerns, 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 variety of top-notch graduates can not be entirely associated to AI but confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-class trainee is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't indicate they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical," he said.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he lamented.
Students' viewpoints on use
Students, on the other hand, say AI has improved their learning experience by making academic materials more easy to understand and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially assisted her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, particularly when dealing with intricate subjects," she explained.
However, she remembered an instance when she utilized AI to submit her task, only for her lecturer to immediately acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted 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, securely believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers stress in class, as they are typically shown in exam concerns.
"It's everything about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he stated,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying straight from ChatGPT when facing several due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, 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 helped me find out faster."
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