ChatGPT in the higher education: A systematic literature review and research challenges

ChatGPT has gained significant attention in the higher education sector as it can be applied across a wide range of topics. Despite ChatGPT's versatility in offering support across various educational disciplines, it is still in its early stages and requires further exploration to be fully utilized effectively in education. This systematic literature review aims to explore the trends, adoption measures, diverse applications, and current limitations of ChatGPT research in higher education. This review systematically analyzed 57 research articles published between 2023 and 2024. This study identified trends in ChatGPT in higher education by providing temporal views, geographical locations, and research methods used. Furthermore, this study explored users' intention to adopt and use ChatGPT in higher education by focusing on post-adoption, intention to use, and acceptance stages. Considering the extensive advantages ChatGPT brings to the academic community, this review explores its diverse applications in educational settings for academic staff, students, researchers, and non-academic users. Finally, this study outlined the current limitations in ChatGPT research within higher education and proposed future research directions, aiming for continuous improvement in the field. This study can benefit higher education by providing valuable insights into the effective utilization of ChatGPT.