Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making learning more accessible but also sparking debates on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic integrity, especially with many students unable to defend their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among students recounting a recent experience he had.
“I gave an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all used the same AI tool to generate their responses,” he said.
He noted that this trend is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.
“AI is a serious challenge when it comes to assignments. Many students no longer think critically—they just go online, generate answers, and submit,” he added.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are also accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.
This debate raises critical questions 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, only one country had released regulations on generative AI as of July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.
Decline of academic rigor
University lecturers are increasingly concerned about students submitting AI-generated assignments without truly understanding the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly relying on ChatGPT, only to struggle with answering basic questions when tested.
“Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished assignments, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It’s disappointing because education is about learning, not just passing courses,” he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of first-class graduates cannot be entirely attributed to AI but admitted that even high-performing students use these tools.
“A first-class student is a first-class student, AI or not, but that doesn’t mean they don’t cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical,” he said.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
“It’s not just students using AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to generate answers. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning,” he lamented.
Students’ perspectives on usage
Students, on the other hand, say AI has improved their learning experience by making academic materials more understandable and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student in Unilag, shared how AI has significantly aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
“AI helped me understand things more easily, especially when dealing with complex topics,” she explained.
However, she recalled an instance when she used AI to submit her project, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad effect.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and focusing on areas that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are often reflected in exam questions.
“It’s all about being present, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my colleagues,” he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student in UNIZIK, admits to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.
“To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I know I’m guilty of that, most times the lecturers don’t get to read through them, but AI has also helped me learn faster.”
Balancing AI’s role in education
Experts believe the solution lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria’s education system, stressing the importance of a balanced approach that maintains human involvement while harnessing AI to improve learning outcomes.
“As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human agency in education. We must ensure that AI enhances, rather than replaces, educators’ vital role in shaping young minds,” he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation expert, addressed growing concerns regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential risks to the educational system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, emphasized the need for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools toward incorporating AI tools in learning environments. She identified two primary reasons why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security risks and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of educators.
“It is not looking at it as a tutor,” Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn’t cater to specific teaching methods.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, often without proper attribution
“A lot of people need to understand, like I said, this is data that has 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 means that is another person’s paperwork,” she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development known as “hallucination,” where AI tools would generate information that was not factual.
“Hallucination meant that it was bringing out information from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up,” she explained.
She recommended “grounding” AI by providing it with specific information to avoid such errors.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the solution, particularly when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog traditional educational methods.
- She believes that consistently reinforcing key information helps people remember and avoid making mistakes when faced with challenges.
“Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they’ll remember.”
She also empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that many schools should address the people and process aspects of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has resorted to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
“Now, I mainly use assignments to ensure students provide original work.” However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this approach difficult.
“If you set complex questions, students won’t be able to use AI to get direct answers,” he explained.
He emphasized the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI cannot easily solve while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI misuse due to a lack of technological awareness. “Some lecturers are analog,” he said.
- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the regulation of AI in education, advising institutions to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical standards, protect user data, and filter inappropriate content.
- It stresses the need to assess the long-term impact of AI on critical skills like thinking and creativity while creating policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends implementing age restrictions for GenAI use to protect younger students and safeguard vulnerable groups.
- For governments, it advised adopting a coordinated national approach to regulating GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and aligning regulations with existing data protection and privacy laws. It emphasizes assessing AI risks, enforcing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring national data ownership.
The increasing reliance on AI tools like ChatGPT in academic settings has significant implications for the education sector, potentially eroding academic integrity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The industry must invest in training educators and students to use AI responsibly, ensuring that it supplements, rather than replaces, the human element in education.
