Generative AI in Engineering and Computing Education: A Scoping Review of Empirical Studies and Educational Practices

Since the release of diverse generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, DALL E, and GitHub Copilot, there has been much debate around the impacts and implications of these tools on education. Currently, extant literature remarks on the affordances, challenges, and opportunities of GenAI, but few studies report and analyze empirical studies and educational practices coming up by GenAI usage in learning settings. Then, in this Scoping Review (ScR) based on 146 studies retrieved from the databases SCOPUS, Web of Science (WoS), and ERIC, we analyzed the implications of integrating GenAI in engineering and computing education from K-12 to tertiary levels. We adopted an approach starting from the bibliometric features of the studies in terms of authors, cites, years, or cluster topics, and navigating to the identification of methodologies, strategies, AI literacy instruments and guidelines, learning outcomes, and students’ and teachers’ perceptions, among other features. We advocate that current educational practices in engineering and computing with GenAI can indicate to us a roadmap of its potentialities, uses, and risks from the standpoint of both teachers and students, and this could help us to create more reflexive methodologies that enhance the teaching-learning process based on the evidence. Our purpose with the outcomes and conclusions of this scoping review is to support educators, faculty members, and other stakeholders in engineering and computing education to co-create educational methodologies that articulate GenAI with curricula, AI literacy, and prompt engineering encompassing students’ learning domains such as cognitive, affective, or behavioral.