On the Role and Impact of GenAI Tools in Software Engineering Education
Qiaolin Qin, Ronnie de Souza Santos, Rodrigo Spinola

TL;DR
This study explores how undergraduate software engineering students use GenAI tools like ChatGPT, revealing benefits in learning and challenges related to ethics, understanding, and instructional needs, emphasizing the importance of guided and ethical use.
Contribution
It provides empirical insights into student usage, perceptions, and challenges of GenAI in SE education, highlighting the need for instructional scaffolding and ethical policies.
Findings
Students use GenAI mainly for learning and implementation.
Benefits include brainstorming and confidence-building.
Challenges involve unclear rationales and ethical concerns.
Abstract
Context. The rise of generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot has transformed how software is learned and written. In software engineering (SE) education, these tools offer new opportunities for support, but also raise concerns about over-reliance, ethical use, and impacts on learning. Objective. This study investigates how undergraduate SE students use GenAI tools, focusing on the benefits, challenges, ethical concerns, and instructional expectations that shape their experiences. Method. We conducted a survey with 130 undergraduate students from two universities. The survey combined structured Likert-scale items and open-ended questions to investigate five dimensions: usage context, perceived benefits, challenges, ethical and instructional perceptions. Results. Students most often use GenAI for incremental learning and advanced implementation, reporting benefits such…
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Taxonomy
TopicsArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
