How to Teach Computer Programming in the Era of Generative AI: An Overview of the PRIMM Model

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Generative AI (artificial intelligence) is changing how many jobs are performed. This is true in the area I work in — software development and teaching computer science. And it is especially true in the types of computer science courses I teach, which are introductory courses teaching students the fundamentals of computer programming.

I will give you an example using one popular generative AI application — ChatGPT. Here is a typical problem I assign to my beginning C++ programming students:

Write a program in C++ that asks for five test scores. The program should calculate the average test score and display it without using an array or a loop. Be sure to define a constant for the total number of test scores. The program should format the average score to one decimal point of precision.

Note — I had to be specific about not using an array and not using a loop and to use a constant for the number of test scores.

Here is the program I wrote immediately after I typed in the problem:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
   const int TEST_SCORES = 5;
   int score1, score2, score3, score4, score5;
   cout << "Enter score 1: ";
   cin >> score1;
   cout <<…