Skip to content
#generative ai Review Open access

Transforming Engineering Education: A Systematic Review of AI Implementation in Classrooms

Oct 2026 · International journal of technology in education and science · 0 citations

TL;DR

A systematic review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2024 concludes that while tools such as generative artificial intelligence, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual and augmented reality, and predictive analytics are increasingly present, their adoption is concentrated in specific areas, particularly problem-solving, simulation, and assessment.

Abstract

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education, yet its role in engineering education remains fragmented and unevenly understood. This systematic review synthesized sixty-nine peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2024 to examine how artificial intelligence tools are being integrated into engineering curricula. Guided by a technology–pedagogy–ethics framework, the analysis explored the types of artificial intelligence tools employed, their pedagogical applications, and the ethical concerns associated with their use. The findings indicate that while tools such as generative artificial intelligence, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual and augmented reality, and predictive analytics are increasingly present, their adoption is concentrated in specific areas, particularly problem-solving, simulation, and assessment. By contrast, applications supporting collaborative learning, industry-linked design projects, and ethical training remain limited. Generative artificial intelligence emerged as both the most rapidly adopted and the most ethically contested technology, raising questions about academic integrity and originality. This review contributes by offering a discipline-specific synthesis that highlights the pedagogical opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence in engineering education and calls for more deliberate alignment of technological innovation with educational practice and ethical responsibility.

Read PDF

Similar papers

Review Aug 2026

Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in Curriculum Development at the University Level

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping curriculum development in higher education as a socio-technical, multidimensional phenomenon rather than a neutral technological tool. This study explores how AI influences ethical governance, pedagogical design, institutional capacity, and contextual dynamics within curriculum systems. Despite growing scholarly attention, existing literature remains fragmented, with ethical, pedagogical, and institutional dimensions often examined in isolation, limiting a comprehensive understanding of their interdependencies. Using a narrative integrative review design, this study synthesizes findings from 55 peer-reviewed studies retrieved from major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, IEEE Xplore, and ScienceDirect. The analysis employed systematic coding and thematic synthesis across ethical-policy, pedagogical-design, and technical-institutional domains. Findings reveal that AI introduces systemic ethical risks, including algorithmic bias, transparency deficits, and data governance challenges, while simultaneously transforming pedagogical practices through personalization and adaptive learning. However, these advances also raise concerns regarding epistemic narrowing and the redistribution of human agency in teaching and learning processes. At the institutional level, AI implementation is constrained by infrastructure limitations, governance misalignment, and dependence on external platforms. Contextual factors further demonstrate that AI curriculum implementation is highly cultureand institution-specific, challenging the feasibility of universal models of adoption. The study identifies a persistent fragmentation in existing research and proposes the Integrated Challenge Model for AI Curriculum Development (ICM-AI-CD), which conceptualizes AI integration as a dynamic socio-technical system comprising interdependent ethical-policy, pedagogical-design, and technical-institutional domains. The study concludes that AI in curriculum development represents a systemic transformation of higher education, requiring integrated frameworks that capture its cascading and interdependent effects. This framework provides a foundation for future research, policy development, and institutional planning in AI-enabled curriculum systems.

Abdul Malik · 0 citations
Review Open access Aug 2026

Redesigning STEM Higher Education in the Era of Generative AI: From Curriculum Design to Classroom Practice

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has moved from an emerging educational tool to a structural challenge for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) higher education. This narrative review argues that the most consequential effect of GenAI is not the automation of existing teaching practices but the need to redesign curricula, learning outcomes, pedagogies, and assessment around disciplinary judgment, critical verification, intellectual independence, and transparent, ethical use of GenAI. Its distinctive contribution is to frame GenAI as a problem of curriculum and assessment validity rather than primarily as a question of tool adoption or academic integrity. Because widely available systems can generate code, solve quantitative problems, summarize literature, draft laboratory reports, and produce fluent scientific prose, conventional submitted artifacts have become weaker indicators of the reasoning and competence they are intended to demonstrate. The review therefore examines the full programme-to-classroom pathway, connecting definitions of graduate competence with course design, classroom and laboratory practice, assessment, feedback, faculty capability, technology adoption, and iterative evaluation. The analysis integrates cognitive load theory, constructive alignment, constructivist perspectives, and frameworks of faculty capability and technology adoption. The biological sciences serve as a recurring disciplinary case because they combine conceptual knowledge, laboratory practice, computational analysis, and ethical decision-making, and are also being transformed by AI-based scientific methods. A worked cell biology example, structured using the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation model, operationalizes the review’s conceptual argument and demonstrates how GenAI integration can translate into needs analysis, outcome specification, resource development, blended laboratory implementation, assessment, and iterative redesign. The resulting design logic is generalized into a transferable five-step template for STEM curriculum redesign, with recommendations at programme, course, and institutional levels.

C. Papaneophytou, Stella A. Nicolaou · 0 citations
Review Open access Aug 2026

Performance, interaction, and ethical evaluation in the use of generative artificial intelligence in engineering education

The preliminary findings suggest that Generative artificial intelligence use in engineering education requires attention not only to tool access or technical performance, but also to students’ interaction strategies, verification practices, and ethical evaluation of context-specific uses.

A. López-Vargas, Javier Rodríguez-Vidal, Ángel García-Beltrán et al. · 0 citations
Review Open access Jul 2026

Artificial intelligence and higher education: a review of opportunities, risks, and transformations in learning processes

The findings suggest that the pedagogical transformation enabled by artificial intelligence depends less on the sophistication of the technologies themselves and more on the institutional capacity to establish curricular guidelines, implement ethical policies, and foster critical digital competencies among both teachers and students.

Félix Antonio Díaz, Juan Carlos Toribio Fernández, J. Martínez-Alonzo et al. · 0 citations
Review Open access Jul 2026

Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Educational Transformation, Assessment, and Governance

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has rapidly transformed higher education practices, creating new opportunities for pedagogical innovation while introducing complex challenges related to assessment validity, academic integrity, and institutional governance. However, existing studies remain fragmented across technological adoption, learning processes, assessment practices, and ethical considerations, limiting a comprehensive understanding of how GenAI can be integrated responsibly into higher education ecosystems. This systematic literature review aims to synthesize current evidence on the educational implications of GenAI by examining its influence on teaching transformation, student learning, assessment redesign, and academic integrity governance. Following the PRISMA framework, relevant studies were systematically identified, screened, and analyzed to reveal emerging patterns, challenges, and future research directions in GenAI adoption within higher education. The synthesis revealed four interconnected themes: (1) transformation of teaching practices through AI-supported instructional design and efficiency improvement, (2) enhancement of student learning through personalization and self-regulated learning support, (3) evolution of assessment toward authentic and competency-oriented approaches, and (4) development of institutional governance frameworks addressing ethical, privacy, transparency, and integrity concerns. The findings indicate that successful GenAI integration requires a balanced approach combining technological capability, pedagogical redesign, and responsible governance. This review contributes to Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research by proposing an integrated perspective for sustainable GenAI adoption and identifying priorities for future empirical investigations.

Syusinka Rahmatika, Martanto, Ryan Hamonangan · 0 citations

Related blog posts