Smart Education across Academic Disciplines: A Systematic Literature Review

Smart education has been practiced in many academic disciplines. To investigate the relationship between the implementation of smart education and the nature of academic disciplines, this paper presents a systematic review to address the literature gap. The study synthesized 110 journal articles collected from Scopus, which were published between 2010 and 2022 and reported smart education practices in higher education. Academic disciplines involved in the practices were categorized into Hard-Pure, Soft-Pure, Hard-Applied, and Soft-Applied based on the Biglan’s classification. The results illustrated that the practices were implemented mainly at the undergraduate level, and most frequently in the language and computer science disciplines. Enhancing learning motivation and engagement and offering learning content and feedback were the most common objectives of smart education practices. The most popular type of learning mode was face-to-face. Online learning was more widespread in applied disciplines, while blended learning was more frequently involved in pure disciplines. The predominantly used technique and learning device were learning platforms / learning management systems and mobile devices, respectively. Additionally, the review found that the majority of pedagogical approaches to smart education were student-centered. Moreover, some pedagogical approaches, such as game-based learning, tended to be specific to certain disciplinary categories.