Simbarashe Murima
CONTEMPORARY tertiary education is at the limelight as a result of perennial tuition fee increases every academic year, at universities and colleges.
Thus, with such rises, one cannot afford to fail the course programme. The candidates exert extended effort to pass and will ensure that their Continuous Assessment (CA) mark look “healthy” as it will have a superior advantage to profit on the final examination.
The purpose of writing an assignment is to assess the student’s subject knowledge by questioning and exploring unconventional perspectives, while improving their writing skills proficiency.
However, there is now a paradigm shift in assignment writing whereby some students are opting to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) essay/assignment writer tools to help them write and score good marks in the written assessments.
Over the years, the education sector has embraced the amalgamation of AI in various practises that benefit students, teachers and administrators to accelerate learning and to save time.
However, the sophistication of technology in contemporary education is seemingly at risk of hatching lazy-thinkers in tertiary institutions.
In this analysis, a lazy thinker is described as someone who does not put in the effort to think critically or logically but depends more on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to figure out ideas and adjudicate.
Nowadays, a significant number of students are overly dependent on the AI-generated content knowledge, thus lessening their ability to synthesise, analyse and assess information independently.
Over-dependence on AI assignment writers rob students of the opportunity to enhance their vocabulary and syntax skills.
AI addiction inspires laziness that results in lack of creativity, inventiveness and asphyxiates critical thinking abilities to nurture broad learning and academic growth.
Moreover, AI usage increases the risk of plagiarism by students. Sadly, the use of internet-based similarity detection services such as Turnitin may be at risk of being overpowered by AI-powered plagiarism changers, which are designed with the intention of eluding plagiarism detection systems thus encouraging academic dishonesty.
This will undeniably dent the principles of academic veracity and the significance of original concepts and research since the students will represent the work as their own.
Although AI is important for scholars in generating ideas and offering consistency in tone and style of writing, it may not be as good as those written by an individual, especially if the assignment question is nuanced or complex.
In essence, humans already have intellectual capabilities better than AI.
Coalescing AI-generated content with human creativity will lead to knowledge expansion and augmentation of cognitive abilities that bear more effective and authentic write ups.
*Simbarashe Murima (PhDc) writes in his own capacity as an Education, Tourism and Hospitality expert in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Feedback: s.murima@yahoo.com or +263781480742