A snapshot at the future of teaching computer programming courses from the lenses of artificial intelligence ? A comparison with teaching web design courses

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its tools into education has upended many academic programs and led to numerous changes in curricula.It also led to questioning the viability and the content included in the teaching of some courses.Among the courses that face that question are computer programming courses.The AI tools can generate programming codes based on written instructions in human spoken languages, simply and without many complications.With this simplicity of producing programming code, the question arises about the feasibility of continuing to teach programming courses with the same methods as before, knowing the simplicity with which AI can produce programming code.Some are predicting that teaching programming the traditional methods will be obsolete and that technological advances dictate including AI tools in the teaching of computer programming courses.This comparative conceptual paper discusses the above concerns by comparing the changes that face the teaching of programming courses with similar significant changes that took place in teaching web design courses at the start of this century.At that time, similar calls were made to replace the teaching of web design courses.An explanation of both cases of teaching (programming and web design) are provided to draw parallels between the two.The purpose is to provide a snapshot of what teaching programming may look like in the future with respect to using AI tools