As others have pointed out this is quite a challenge for the teacher. It's good that this teacher knows a bit of HTML and SQL, at least the teacher will be able to get around an editor, even if just barely. This is an important hurdle.

I think the choice of teaching Perl and CGI is a good way to approach it. Students are definitely going to be uninterested if they can't write programs that do something demonstrable, something they can see themselves and show to other people. As you say the "gee whiz" factor is high. The typical editing text files of most introductory Perl does not fit this bill.

Have you considered the configuration and care of the Web Server they'll be using? It'd be cool if they have Linux or *BSD so that you could easily manage it remotely and look into the problems, but the Server is an additional cost to the setup of this class.

I've done a bit of volunteering and seen a lot more. One piece of advice. See if you can get together a support group to help with this project. As others have recommended, recommend that they have speakers in the class giving lessons, showing advanced examples to inspire, etc. Definitely, try to find someone to help with the questions and setup problems. It's more important that you can keep helping out rather than just burn out and stop altogether.

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