In the era of AI+, the digitization of higher education has become an inevitable trend. Aligning with this trend, this paper takes the course of design principles of foundation engineering as an example, leverages artificial intelligence technology and relies on the curriculum knowledge graph construction system of online teaching platform of Tongji University, constructs a knowledge graph for the design principles of foundation engineering course and explores new teaching models compatible with it. This research helps teachers organize teaching content more efficiently, significantly improves teaching effectiveness, and better adapts to the development trend of digital education; simultaneously, the visualization feature of the knowledge graph enables students to quickly grasp the overall framework of knowledge and deeply explore the deeper meaning of knowledge, thus fully meeting the learning needs of students in the new era.