About This Webinar
Join this “Ask Me Anything” to chat with Zach Galant, CTO and co-founder of CodeHS. Bring your questions about curriculum, the platform, or CS & AI education. Zach will also discuss new platform updates, how CodeHS is thinking about Academic Integrity in the age of AI, and the future of CS education. Whether you're a teacher or an administrator, this open Q&A is your chance to ask us anything.
Explore the future of computer science education with CodeHS CTO Zach Gallant as he addresses AI in the classroom, student engagement strategies, and innovative teaching tools to empower the next generation of coders.
Full Transcript
Read the complete transcript of this webinar
Welcome to our Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with CodeHS CTO and co-founder, Zach Gallant. This live Q&A is dedicated to discussing everything in computer science, featuring host Kit Ward, a marketing manager at CodeHS based in Denver, Colorado, alongside Zach, who is based in Chicago.
To give a bit of background, Zach and our other co-founder, Jeremy, met during their freshman year at Stanford. After helping teach Intro to Computer Science, they wanted to spread that learning further and co-founded CodeHS during their senior year in 2012. CodeHS is a comprehensive platform for teaching computer science, offering everything a teacher, school, district, or classroom needs, including curriculum, online professional development, and a full suite of teacher tools. Our mission is to empower all students to meaningfully impact the future, guided by our belief that coding is a core literacy skill just like reading and writing.
Our agenda today is driven by your questions and lively discussion. To kick things off, we addressed a pre-submitted question regarding a common concern from stakeholders: "How do I respond when students, parents, and administrators say we don't need to teach kids how to code because AI can just do it?"
Zach explained that computer science is actually more important than ever because of AI, not less. While AI can write code, essays, or make art, school is about training your brain, developing problem-solving muscles, and gaining foundational understanding. Much like using calculators for long division, writing code yourself trains your brain to handle higher levels of abstraction. Furthermore, AI is creating more work for engineers; those who get the most out of AI are computer scientists who deeply understand the underlying systems. Additionally, computer science jobs remain strong, and learning to program provides essential skills for the modern economy.
David, a participant, brought up a follow-up question regarding how high school CS education and universities should evolve alongside rapid advancements in agentic AI programming. Zach noted that while core foundational concepts, algorithms, and debugging remain vital for training the mind, classrooms can leverage AI tools like vibe coding to inspire students and help them build projects beyond their traditional comfort zones. David shared his own perspective, highlighting that coding teaches transferable skills like problem-solving, computational thinking, and attention to detail.
Addressing the university landscape, Zach emphasized that pure computer science degrees offer a rock-solid foundation, but combining CS with secondary fields like design, media, or data science gives students a competitive edge. Programs like Stanford's "CS Plus" or roles like forward-deployed engineers highlight the growing trend of applying strong technical backgrounds to domain-specific real-world problems.
When asked how CodeHS uses AI internally, Zach shared that professional software engineers on the team utilize AI agents to accelerate development and ship features faster. However, he emphasized the critical requirement that the team must deeply understand every line of code generated to ensure maintainability, security, and quality.
For educators facing declining CS enrollment or lack of state requirements—such as Charnell from South Dakota—Zach recommended leaning on standards-aligned CodeHS pathways, hosting engaging events like vibe coding hackathons, showcasing student projects, and building grassroots advocacy through parents and school boards.
We also covered key CodeHS platform tools designed to boost classroom engagement:
- Real-Time Collaboration in the IDE: Students can write code together simultaneously in the sandbox, with collaborative features expanding to Carol the Dog exercises.
- Comprehensive Revision History: Teachers can view a full timeline of student actions (saves, runs, pastes, and autosaves) to monitor progress and understand their workflow.
- Ask AI Assistant: Integrated directly into CodeHS, Ask AI goes beyond general LLMs by analyzing grade book data, identifying lessons where students struggled, creating announcements, adjusting due dates, and generating targeted assignments for differentiated learning.
- Student Groups & Academic Integrity Tools: Grouping features allow seamless differentiation, while academic integrity features help monitor code similarity and unusual submission patterns.
We want to be more than just a software platform; CodeHS is committed to being a partner in your classroom success. Thank you to everyone who joined and asked questions!
To give a bit of background, Zach and our other co-founder, Jeremy, met during their freshman year at Stanford. After helping teach Intro to Computer Science, they wanted to spread that learning further and co-founded CodeHS during their senior year in 2012. CodeHS is a comprehensive platform for teaching computer science, offering everything a teacher, school, district, or classroom needs, including curriculum, online professional development, and a full suite of teacher tools. Our mission is to empower all students to meaningfully impact the future, guided by our belief that coding is a core literacy skill just like reading and writing.
Our agenda today is driven by your questions and lively discussion. To kick things off, we addressed a pre-submitted question regarding a common concern from stakeholders: "How do I respond when students, parents, and administrators say we don't need to teach kids how to code because AI can just do it?"
Zach explained that computer science is actually more important than ever because of AI, not less. While AI can write code, essays, or make art, school is about training your brain, developing problem-solving muscles, and gaining foundational understanding. Much like using calculators for long division, writing code yourself trains your brain to handle higher levels of abstraction. Furthermore, AI is creating more work for engineers; those who get the most out of AI are computer scientists who deeply understand the underlying systems. Additionally, computer science jobs remain strong, and learning to program provides essential skills for the modern economy.
David, a participant, brought up a follow-up question regarding how high school CS education and universities should evolve alongside rapid advancements in agentic AI programming. Zach noted that while core foundational concepts, algorithms, and debugging remain vital for training the mind, classrooms can leverage AI tools like vibe coding to inspire students and help them build projects beyond their traditional comfort zones. David shared his own perspective, highlighting that coding teaches transferable skills like problem-solving, computational thinking, and attention to detail.
Addressing the university landscape, Zach emphasized that pure computer science degrees offer a rock-solid foundation, but combining CS with secondary fields like design, media, or data science gives students a competitive edge. Programs like Stanford's "CS Plus" or roles like forward-deployed engineers highlight the growing trend of applying strong technical backgrounds to domain-specific real-world problems.
When asked how CodeHS uses AI internally, Zach shared that professional software engineers on the team utilize AI agents to accelerate development and ship features faster. However, he emphasized the critical requirement that the team must deeply understand every line of code generated to ensure maintainability, security, and quality.
For educators facing declining CS enrollment or lack of state requirements—such as Charnell from South Dakota—Zach recommended leaning on standards-aligned CodeHS pathways, hosting engaging events like vibe coding hackathons, showcasing student projects, and building grassroots advocacy through parents and school boards.
We also covered key CodeHS platform tools designed to boost classroom engagement:
- Real-Time Collaboration in the IDE: Students can write code together simultaneously in the sandbox, with collaborative features expanding to Carol the Dog exercises.
- Comprehensive Revision History: Teachers can view a full timeline of student actions (saves, runs, pastes, and autosaves) to monitor progress and understand their workflow.
- Ask AI Assistant: Integrated directly into CodeHS, Ask AI goes beyond general LLMs by analyzing grade book data, identifying lessons where students struggled, creating announcements, adjusting due dates, and generating targeted assignments for differentiated learning.
- Student Groups & Academic Integrity Tools: Grouping features allow seamless differentiation, while academic integrity features help monitor code similarity and unusual submission patterns.
We want to be more than just a software platform; CodeHS is committed to being a partner in your classroom success. Thank you to everyone who joined and asked questions!
