Digital Intelligence and the Impact to University Education

From Learning to Co-learning Towards Understanding

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-823-8_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

artificial intelligence in education; personal AI agents; blended learning; project-based learning; university assessment; academic integrity; digital intelligence; companion-aware assessment; reasoning maturity; Readingto-Questions

Abstract

Universities are entering a period in which the classical image of learning and examination is no longer sufficient. Students no longer study only with a textbook, lecture notes, a deadline, and their own memory. Increasingly, they also work with Personal AI Agents (PAIAs) that explain difficult ideas, translate disciplinary language, generate examples, simulate examiners, suggest code, support projects, and provide rapid feedback. This paper argues that the key question for universities is not whether students will use AI, but whether universities can design learning and assessment in such a way that students learn with AI while keeping judgment, responsibility, and ownership human. Building on digital intelligence, blended learning, project-based learning, questionbased learning, and the Marek/Gabriela distinction between pragmatic AI builders and deeper AI architects, the paper proposes Companion-Aware Assessment as a human-centered model for higher education in the AI era. The paper keeps the formal model intentionally simple. Knowing is interpreted as a combination of learning and understanding, and the university task is to ensure that AI support stimulates understanding rather than replacing thinking. The paper also introduces a Reasoning Maturity Scale as a complement to traditional grades, emphasizing explanation, verification, transfer, and student responsibility for the results of human-PAIA interaction. The paper concludes that future universities should not limit their response to cheating prevention. They must cultivate graduates who can question AI, verify AI, collaborate with AI, and remain responsible for decisions made with AI.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Peter Sincak
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
TI  - Digital Intelligence and the Impact to University Education
BT  - Proceedings of the Innovation in Engineering Education 2026 Conference (IEE 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 188
EP  - 208
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-823-8_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-823-8_17
ID  - Sincak2026
ER  -