Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making finding out more accessible however also triggering debates on its impact.

While trainees 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 weakens academic stability, particularly with many students not able to defend their assignments or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, suvenir51.ru a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses among students recounting a recent experience he had.

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“I provided an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the precise very same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, but they all utilized the very same AI tool to create their reactions,” he said.

He noted that this trend prevails among 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 tasks. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just browse the web, create responses, and submit,” he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.

This debate raises important concerns about the function 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 country had actually released policies on generative AI since July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the world.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly worried about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without genuinely understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with answering fundamental questions when evaluated.

“Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek tasks, however when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It’s disappointing because education is about learning, not just passing courses,” he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of top-notch graduates can not be entirely associated to AI but admitted that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
“A top-notch trainee is a superior student, AI or not, but that does not imply they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical,” he said.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
“It’s not simply trainees utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course lays out, marking schemes, and even examination questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning,” he lamented.

Students’ point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making academic products more understandable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, it-viking.ch shared how AI has actually considerably aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
“AI assisted me comprehend things more quickly, particularly when handling complicated topics,” she described.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to send her job, just for her lecturer to right away acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline 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, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in exam questions.
“It’s all about being present, taking note, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers,” he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with multiple deadlines.
“To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I’m guilty of that, a lot of times the lecturers do not get to review them, however AI has also assisted me find out much faster.”

Balancing AI’s role in education

Experts believe the solution lies in AI literacy