How AI is saving Nigerian lecturers days of preparation
Increasing time demands and the challenge of reaching learners beyond traditional classrooms is pushing educators across Africa to turn to artificial intelligence to plan courses, generate learning materials, and support students outside of class. Nigeria may be leading the way.
Santuval Academy in Abuja, Nigeria, provided finance, accounting, and investment courses in rented classrooms. Lecturers faced challenges in creating materials to fit their schedules, while students desired varied learning experiences. Abba, a chartered accountant and lecturer, sought technology to simplify his workload. He discovered Distinction AI, an AI-powered education platform developed by FlexiSAF Edusoft Limited, which aids lecturers in creating online courses and teaching materials.
After implementing the platform, Abba found that lecture slides that once took three days to generate could now be produced in minutes. He now creates courses on the platform and uses an AI assistant to grade assignments and provide feedback. Umar Adam Ibrahim, a computer scientist and AI researcher at Nile University, noted that lecturers often spend too much time on administrative tasks and suggested that AI can aid personalized learning.
Distinction AI originated from an internal problem at FlexiSAF, where employees spent time developing courses for new hires. The company later expanded its use to help educators and students. Hamid Bashir, a petroleum chemist turned education technology expert, leads Distinction AI's product development. The AI platform allows users to create and sell online courses and has helped over 10,000 instructors produce 20,000 courses, with 160,000 learners spending two million hours learning since its launch.
However, AI in education has limitations, such as occasional incorrect responses from the algorithm, which the team addresses through a quality assurance process.
Written by urgent.news from IOL's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
