Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more available but also stimulating debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, particularly with numerous trainees not able to protect their tasks or offered works.

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

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"I offered 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, but they all used the same AI tool to produce their responses," he stated.

He kept in mind that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is especially concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a severe difficulty when it comes to projects. Many students no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and send," he included.

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

This debate raises vital concerns about the role of AI in academic integrity and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, just one nation had launched regulations on generative AI since July 2023.

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without truly understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students progressively relying on ChatGPT, opensourcebridge.science just to deal with addressing standard questions when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek tasks, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education is about learning, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of first-class graduates can not be completely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students these tools.
"A first-rate trainee is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, but that does not suggest they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the exact 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 exam concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn use AI to create answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning," he regreted.

Students' viewpoints on use

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

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, specifically when handling complicated topics," she explained.

However, she recalled an instance when she used AI to send her job, only for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and focusing on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are typically reflected in exam concerns.
"It's all about being present, focusing, and using the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when facing numerous deadlines.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers don't get to review them, but AI has likewise helped me discover faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts believe the solution lies in AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to utilize AI as a knowing help rather than a faster way.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the value of a balanced approach that preserves human participation while harnessing AI to improve learning outcomes.
"As we navigate the quickly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We should make sure that AI boosts, rather than replaces, educators' essential function in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, addressed growing issues concerning using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible dangers to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, emphasized the requirement for care in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and schools towards integrating AI tools in finding out environments. She determined 2 main reasons that AI tools are prevented in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based on user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI doesn't accommodate specific mentor techniques.

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

"A lot of people need to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing details that some other people are fed into it, which in essence suggests that is another individual's paperwork," she warned.

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

She recommended "grounding" AI by offering it with specific info to avoid such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

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

- She believes that regularly enhancing essential details helps people keep in mind and prevent making mistakes when faced with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the exact same thing over and over once again, when they will make the errors, then they'll remember."

She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that many schools should address the individuals and procedure aspects of this use.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize tasks to ensure students offer original work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this approach challenging.

"If you set complicated questions, trainees will not have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he discussed.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI can not quickly fix while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI misuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.

- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, recommending institutions to investigate algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical requirements, secure user data, and filter improper content.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting effect of AI on important abilities like thinking and imagination while producing policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO advises carrying out age restrictions for GenAI use to protect more youthful trainees and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it advised adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and aligning guidelines with existing data protection and personal privacy laws. It highlights assessing AI threats, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr enforcing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and making sure national information ownership.