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

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, specifically with many trainees unable to safeguard their assignments or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing reliance on AI-generated actions among students recounting a recent experience he had.

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"I offered a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact very same responses. These students did not even understand each other, but they all utilized the exact same AI tool to produce their reactions," he said.

He noted that this pattern is widespread among both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is particularly worrying in part-time and distance learning programs.

"AI is a major challenge when it pertains to assignments. Many students no longer think critically-they just go online, produce responses, and send," he added.

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

This debate raises important concerns about the role of AI in scholastic stability and student development.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day worldwide.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are increasingly concerned about students submitting AI-generated projects without genuinely comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees increasingly depending on ChatGPT, only to have problem with responding to fundamental concerns when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send sleek assignments, however when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing since education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be totally credited to AI however admitted that even high-performing students use these tools.
"A superior student is a top-notch student, AI or not, however that does not indicate they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making students dependent 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 exact same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing," he regreted.

Students' point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic materials more reasonable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, particularly when handling complex subjects," she explained.

However, fakenews.win she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, only for her speaker to immediately recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, yewiki.org who just recently graduated with a superior degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr strongly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are often shown in exam questions.
"It's everything about being present, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers do not get to read through them, but AI has also helped me discover quicker."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the service depends on AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to use AI as a knowing aid rather than a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the importance of a balanced approach that maintains human involvement while harnessing AI to improve discovering outcomes.
"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We should ensure that AI improves, instead of replaces, teachers' important function in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement specialist, resolved growing issues regarding using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective risks to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, highlighted the requirement for geohashing.site caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst educators and schools towards integrating AI tools in finding out environments. She recognized 2 primary factors why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security threats and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based on user interactions, trademarketclassifieds.com which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI does not cater to specific mentor approaches.

Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing information, frequently without proper 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 indicates that is another individual's paperwork," she warned.

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

She recommended "grounding" AI by offering it with specific details 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 educational methods.

- She thinks that consistently reinforcing crucial details helps people keep in mind and avoid making mistakes when faced with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the very same thing over and over once again, when they will make the mistakes, then they'll remember."

She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that numerous schools need to deal with individuals and procedure elements of this use.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I mainly use assignments to make sure students supply original work." However, he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this approach tough.

"If you set complex questions, trainees will not be able to use AI to get direct responses," he explained.

He emphasized the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting examination concerns that AI can not quickly solve while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI misuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, transparency, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the guideline of AI in education, advising organizations to audit algorithms, wiki.eqoarevival.com information, and outputs of AI tools to guarantee they meet ethical standards, protect user information, and filter improper material.
- It stresses the need to evaluate the long-lasting impact of AI on critical skills like believing and imagination while developing policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO recommends executing age constraints for GenAI usage to safeguard more youthful students and protect susceptible groups.
- For governments, it recommended adopting a coordinated national method to regulating GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and aligning policies with existing data security and personal privacy laws. It highlights examining AI risks, imposing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.