By Bill Dan Arnold Borodi
“The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI on 30th November 2022 was a game-changer for me. It boosted my productivity and learning efficiency, allowing me to balance two jobs and my studies,” said Joshua Jasper Agaba, on his X account (formerly Twitter) in celebration of his attainment of a first class Honors Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Agaba is a recent graduate of the Faculty of Engineering, Design and from Technology at Uganda Christian University (UCU).
Agaba’s journey to academic excellence while juggling two jobs is an inspiring one and shows the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT.
He shared, on X, that his journey started in January 2022 when he obtained straight As with a 5.0 GPA.The final graduation list shows that out of 25 graduates who achieved a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, five students excelled with First Class Degrees, with Agaba emerging as the best male student in the class with a CGPA of 4.62.
The success story of Agaba underscores a broader trend in education as AI continues to evolve. Looking at Agaba’s X space, questions linger. One is tempted to ask, “Is Agaba’s degree authentic? What will the future of academia look like in an AI driven world? Can the use of AI tools maintain the authenticity and integrity of academic achievements? Will students rely too heavily on AI, potentially undermining the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills?”
According to Richard Ssekitoleko, a tech specialist working with UCU E-learning Centre, there shouldn’t be worries about such developments.
“Academia shouldn’t worry about emerging technologies like AI. Technology has always been competitive which is a good thing, Tutors need to be on top of their game,” he says.
He adds that much as AI seems to present big challenges in the field, the biggest challenge is resistance towards AI, and he believes what is required is a mindset change.
Lecturers and tutors, he says, need to fully embrace AI and understand it so as to have control over it, for example using new teaching models like flipping the class which increases student engagement in the learning process, and using AI to access students using the different instructor tools such as AI generated quiz questions. This way, high quality instructors can be sure of being ahead of the learners.
According to Ssekitoleko, UCU is at the forefront of leveraging technologies like AI to improve the education experience. The university has in place a “Purge and Make” policy with direct oversight from the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Rev. Prof. John Mulindwa Kitayimbwa. This policy ensures that every course taught online has content uploaded on the Moodle platform and is analysed by an AI plugin to detect plagiarism.
In addition to that, UCU uses a plugin called turnitin borrowed from the Hamu Mukasa Library years back.With turnitin, work uploaded on Moodle is quickly scanned for plagiarism and AI generated content. It classifies content plagiarism in percentages. Another recent trial of AI was recently, when the Masters of Business Administration class had an online examination invigilated by proctoring.
Proctored exams are timed exams taken while proctoring software monitors the computer’s desktop, using webcam video and audio, and with a person watching from the other end. The software analyses patterns to identify potential cheating behaviour ensuring a secure and fair exam environment.
The staff and students from UCU’s Department of Computing and Technology are excited about the rate and speed of AI advancement. The department labs have been fully equipped to help students develop problem solving AI models.
Charles Muganga an intern student from the department says that they have been able to finish up a prototype of certain software that will help farmers improve their yields by determining the soil type, soil PH and nitrogen which will inform the type of fertilizer to be used on that soil. The only challenge, he says, is that the data used in this prototype is benchmarked from the Netherlands and Germany. There is therefore a need for localised data in order to advance this prototype for deployment in the Ugandan markets.
UCU is the only accredited university in Uganda offering a Masters of Science in Data Science and Analytics, a pivotal course in advancing AI in Uganda.
All this goes to show that AI is spreading in the different spheres of life. At the end of the day, people should learn how to harness and use it for good, rather than run away from it.
