@johnbeard Maybe edit your comment? No need to give lazy students nefarious idea’s.
I don’t really agree with this. I started with KiCad over 10 years ago, and during evaluation I made my first PCB in KiCad in the first afternoon I Installed KiCad. Back then KiCad had a lot more “missing features”, faults and gaps in it’s capabilities. And the “Getting started in KiCad” was enough back then (KiCad V3 or so, even version numbers were a bit vague back then) to get an idea of the workflow in KiCad and avoid the biggest pitfalls. Also see this other thread: [feedback] My first PCB. Felt pretty easy... what am i missing? - #11 by Piotr A beginner, first project, (probably) did not read much of the manual, was apprehensive to start, but still quite liked his KiCad experience.
For your course:
I understand Git is a bit of a sidetrack. But IMHO KiCad should just be a vehicle, and not the main part of the course. Things like signal integrity and EMC considerations. How to get routing done on a 2 layer PCB while keeping it compact is a puzzle on it’s own, but these days 4 layer PCB’s are getting pretty common. Prices are reasonable, (especially in bigger production runs, the cost difference is manageable). 4-layers also make it much easier to be on the safe side of EMC regulations, and it saves a lot of design time. Two factors that can drive up costs significantly.
Rick Hartley (from altium) has made a 2hour and 10 minute video about the importance and use of GND planes. It’s a very good video with a lot of background info. I think I saw it two, maybe 3 times myself.