As AI reshapes education, professor makes case for learning over answers

As artificial intelligence transforms the way students study, conduct research, and complete academic tasks, Professor Adedeji Badiru is advocating a model in which the technology does more than provide instant answers.

He is an educator with more than 40 years of professorial experience and creator of AskProf, a platform that operates as AskProf.com.

It is an artificial intelligence-powered educational platform.

Badiru believes the greater promise of AI lies in helping students understand what they are learning.

He said AskProf was conceived as a student-focused tool that encourages learning, knowledge retention, and critical thinking, rather than treating Artificial Intelligence simply as a shortcut to answers.

“AskProf, as an AI tool, is specifically designed and structured to encourage, inspire and motivate students to learn, acquire knowledge and retain information rather than just providing answers to students,” he said.

The professor, who described teaching and educational innovation as longstanding passions, said his concern about the changing attitude of students and teachers towards the learning process also influenced the development of the platform.

According to him, education should remain engaging enough to stimulate curiosity, even as technology changes how knowledge is accessed.

AI built from the classroom outward

Badiru said one of the distinctions between AskProf and general-purpose AI platforms is that the former was designed specifically around education.

The platform provides examination-aligned support for students preparing for JAMB, WAEC, NECO, and Post-UTME in Nigeria, alongside SAT, ACT, and AP examinations in the United States.

Rather than limiting interaction to a question-and-answer exchange, a student can turn a study session into flashcards, quizzes, or summary notes to test retention.

The platform also tracks topics a student has covered and areas where the learner repeatedly encounters difficulty, helping users direct more attention to their weaker subjects.

Badiru said the distinction matters because understanding an explanation and being able to recall or apply it during an examination are not necessarily the same thing.

For teachers and lecturers, AskProf.com also provides classroom codes through which educators can create classes, allow students to join, and identify topics where the class is collectively struggling.

He said the feature could enable teachers to gain insight into students’ learning difficulties without having to discover every problem through conventional assessment.

The concept behind AskProf, Badiru disclosed, dates back more than two decades, long before generative AI became widely accessible.

He registered the AskProf.com domain more than 20 years ago with the intention of creating an avenue through which students could email academic questions to him for answers.

The plan, however, faced a practical obstacle: one professor could not realistically respond to potentially large volumes of questions.

The emergence of advanced artificial intelligence eventually provided a solution.

Badiru said the arrival of ChatGPT accelerated his thinking about bringing the idea to life, while his access to AI programmer, Damilola Adelaja, helped propel the development of the platform.

AskProf, he added, fits into a much longer record of developing educational tools.

In 1995, Badiru developed what he called: “Badiru’s Equation of Student Success,” which he later expanded into a 2013 guidebook: “Badiru’s Equation of Student Success: Intelligence, Common Sense, and Self-Discipline.”

He also developed desktop computer-based project scheduling software in 1982, which was later presented at international conferences and distributed freely to students, educators, and researchers. 

The professor acknowledged concerns over the reliability of generative AI, particularly the possibility of systems producing inaccurate information.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖