Transforming or Undermining Learning using GenAI: A Systematic Literature Review and Design Science Study

GenAI has become one of the most influential technologies, transforming various industries, including education. It has a bright side and a dark side. A key question in the educational context is whether the use of GenAI positively transforms or undermines learning, particularly among university students and recent graduates. Our research objective was to explore and evaluate how university students and recent graduates can utilize GenAI tools to sustain and positively transform their learning. We adopt the design science research method, combining a systematic literature review for observation, followed by a systems thinking approach for theorizing conceptual artifacts to examine the bright and dark sides of using GenAI tools. We then designed system artifacts using prompt engineering and simulations. We evaluated the proposed artifacts through interviews and literature. This study contributes to GenAI and learning research by offering a novel, holistic lens that attempts to support sustained, adaptive, lifelong, and unsupervised learning. The key conceptual and systems artifacts from this study would be of value to university students, recent graduates, educators, and employers, enabling them to mitigate the dark side and enhance the bright side of GenAI-based learning. Future work will involve validation of the proposed artifacts through in-depth empirical studies.