Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education while making finding out more available but likewise stimulating debates on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, particularly with lots of students not able to safeguard their tasks or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed disappointment over the growing reliance on AI-generated actions amongst trainees stating a current experience he had.

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"I gave an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact very same responses. These students did not even know each other, however they all used the same AI tool to produce their responses," he stated.

He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is particularly worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a serious challenge when it comes to tasks. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, produce responses, and submit," he included.

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

This vital concerns about the role of AI in scholastic integrity and trainee advancement.

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

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are progressively worried about trainees submitting AI-generated assignments without genuinely understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about students progressively relying on ChatGPT, just to have a hard time with addressing basic concerns when tested.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek assignments, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with learning, not just passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be completely credited to AI but admitted that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A top-notch student is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, however that does not mean they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical," he said.

- 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 describes, marking schemes, and even test questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has improved their learning experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me comprehend things more quickly, particularly when dealing with complicated topics," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, just for her lecturer to instantly recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and concentrating on areas that lecturers highlight in class, as they are frequently reflected in test concerns.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and using the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with multiple deadlines.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers do not get to go through them, however AI has likewise helped me learn faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts believe the service depends on AI literacy; teaching trainees and lecturers how to use AI as a knowing aid rather than a faster way.

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

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change expert, addressed growing concerns relating to the use of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the academic system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, highlighted the requirement for equipifieds.com care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among teachers and schools toward incorporating AI tools in discovering environments. She determined 2 primary reasons AI tools are dissuaded in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, describing that AI does not deal with particular mentor techniques.

Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing data, often without proper attribution

"A lot of individuals need 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 details that some other individuals 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 meant that it was bringing out details from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.

She suggested "grounding" AI by supplying it with particular information to avoid such errors.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog traditional educational methods.

- She thinks that regularly reinforcing essential information helps individuals keep in mind and avoid making mistakes when faced with challenges.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the same thing over and over once again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."

She likewise empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that many schools need to address the people and procedure aspects of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has resorted to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I mainly utilize assignments to make sure trainees provide original work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this technique tough.

"If you set intricate questions, trainees won't have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he described.

He highlighted the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting test concerns that AI can not easily resolve while acknowledging that some speakers battle to counter AI misuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers 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, recommending organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical standards, akropolistravel.com secure user information, and filter improper material.
- It worries the requirement to examine the long-lasting impact of AI on important abilities like believing and imagination while producing policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO suggests implementing age limitations for GenAI use to secure younger trainees and secure susceptible groups.
- For governments, it advised adopting a collaborated nationwide approach to regulating GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and aligning guidelines with existing data protection and personal privacy laws. It highlights evaluating AI dangers, implementing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring national data ownership.