Studying as an academic activity conducted in pursuit of a degree or a professional advancement should be carried out with fun. However, surveys have proved otherwise which makes it an issue of concern. A United State Education tech company (Chegg’s) in its survey reported this year, revealed that students (in certain countries) experience a poor mental state. The reported poor mental condition range from anxiety and insomnia as mid-level mental struggles to burnout in extreme cases. All of which eventually results in student’s declining academic performance, dropping out of school of the university, self-harm or even suicide.
Most of these issues according to the survey stem from pressure induced by financial. For clarity, one of the countries where universities students were found to struggle the most is the United Kingdom (UK) and one germane reason for this is as a result of the increase in tuition fee by the UK government. Breaking this down, increased tuition fees cause students to work extra hours to enable them pay their tuition fee. The extra hours spent working is obtained from hours meant to be spent in the classroom or spent studying materials. Subconsciously, these adjustments force the affected students to lag behind academically evidence in the frequent abstinence in classroom; lateness in submitting their assignments; and poor performance in their respective course works, seminar presentations, tests and exams grades.
As a temporary fix, a significant amount of students from the survey reported using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as their learning support. While AI hype on the macro level points at positive improvement for education, on a micro level, as it pertains to students individually, it is sad to assert that AI negatively affect student’s learning experience in a couple of ways. Firstly, Overly dependence on AI by student have been reported to reduce peer-to-peer as well as peer-to-lecturer interaction. Students get disconnected physically, emotionally and socially from their colleagues and tutors, focusing solely on AI built structures which leads to decreased engagements; demotivation and disinterest in instructional teaching approaches. All of which worsen the learning experience of university students.
Secondly, information and materials endorsed in the universities are either verified facts that have been peer reviewed or claims from recognized scholars respectively. This is not the reality with contents published on AI platforms. In most cases, erroneous and deceptive contents flood AI systems which deprives students of information that are accurate, reliable and transparent. This reality beats the goals of formal education and shouldn’t be encouraged. Thirdly, student’s dependence on AI technology has often been reported to reduce their critical thinking ability, problem solving ability and creative nature. Now, rather than thinking deeply on the plausible approaches to provide solution to problem, It feel normal for students to ask AI and rely absolutely on the responses gotten. Lastly, the issue of privacy regarding the use of AI is another thing to worry about. In a bid to improve AI systems, it is a usual practice to collect large amount of users (Students) information. The method of collecting the information sometimes are unethical, other times without student’s consent and the worst of it all, the obtained information are susceptible to security breaches.
A permanent fix for this challenge is to provide academic learning support environment where theory of learning is upheld. A place where peer-to-peer interactions with student is not only supported but students can relate effortlessly with expert(s) without the fear of being criticized or condemned. A place where students are motivated to look beyond the challenges thrown at them as a result of their financial and strive to have good grades irrespective. A place where students are rest assure that their extra effort to excel academically remains private. This is what Craig Education Consult is all about. This is the gap we choose to fill.
As a university student, if you constantly struggle with your course works, assessments, tests, essays, assignments, research, analysis and writings. You can hire a private tutor at Craig Educational Consult to help improve your performance. If you know any student in need of these resources, direct them here.
