Hi Sam,
For a longer College CE Course geared towards general (non-system admin) users, I was thinking of an intro course with the following modules:
1) Hardware Overview -- Explanation of the different components (CPU, GPU, memory etc...). Goal is to help user make good consumer choices by understanding specs and hardware. If possible, have students build or dissect a computer. Or look at consumer choices when buying a computer. E.g. where to get a computer with Linux or no OS.
2) Linux distributions overview -- Understand the different families and distributions. Get into the philosophies and histories. Understand the difference between kernel and distros.
3) Desktops and servers -- Understand the desktop environment options. Get into considerations for customization vs familiarity/ease of use vs resource usage of the various desktop environments which might be critical depending on the system hardware. Also mention server (non-desktop) environment possibilities too.
4) Installation -- Installation process from creating installation media to testing. Cover ways to try before installation such as from the installation media on some distros and via virtualization. Also cover requirements before installation.
5) Networking, security and updates
6) Configuration and GUI customization
7) Basic bash commands (essentials)
8) Text editors (GUI and command line based)
9) Other opensource software -- Open source principles and the wonders of freedom. Cover a wide range of software available in the opens-server universe. Might also cover consideration for software from the official repositories vs software in the wild with a caution when selecting software not from official sources.
10) Advanced bash commands and scripts.
Did I miss anything?
For a community based workshop/sessions, These can be broken down into individual workshops as part of a Linux series. Of course, audience needs to be considered for content and pace of delivery perhaps.
The opensource software session could also be expanded to cover specific software tools or simple projects such as Pixel art using Gimp, Game development with Godot, music making with LMMS, Gaming on Linux, business apps on Linux, etc... That possibilities for workshops are endless once users get the basics.
Regards,
Robert