Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more available but also triggering debates on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their knowing experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, specifically with lots of trainees not able to protect their assignments or offered 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 amongst students stating a recent experience he had.

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“I provided an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the precise very same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all utilized the exact same AI tool to produce their actions,” he said.

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

“AI is a major challenge when it concerns assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they simply browse the web, produce answers, and submit,” he included.

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 vital concerns about the function of AI in academic stability and student advancement.

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

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are significantly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated tasks without genuinely comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees progressively relying on ChatGPT, only to struggle with answering fundamental concerns when tested.

“Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send refined projects, but when asked fundamental concerns, they go blank. It’s frustrating because education is about discovering, not simply passing courses,” he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of first-rate graduates can not be entirely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
“A first-rate student is a first-rate student, AI or not, however that doesn’t suggest they do not cheat. The advantages 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 concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
“It’s not simply trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even exam questions with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine knowing,” he lamented.

Students’ point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has improved their learning experience by making academic products more understandable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
“AI helped me understand things more easily, especially when handling complicated subjects,” she explained.

However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to submit her task, just for her lecturer to right away recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a first-rate 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 exceptional grades to actively interesting by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are typically shown in exam concerns.
“It’s everything about being present, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my colleagues,” he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several deadlines.
“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, many times the lecturers don’t get to read through them, but AI has also assisted me learn quicker.”

Balancing AI’s role in education

Experts believe the solution depends on AI literacy