Great that you're doing this! You've had many good suggestions already. I teach photography basics and editing to individuals and small groups so it may be a little different from yours but my students are all in the over 55 crowd. I use a lot of the same strategies you and the respondents have noted, and have picked up some ideas here to incorporate into what I'm doing, so thank you for the thread.

The first thing I do with any new person or group is a survey to find out what they already know and what they want to do that they don't know how to do. I also ask them to share a few of their favorite pictures and why they like them, and/or images they've seen that they admire. I repeat some kind of survey ever so often to guide what I'm doing with them. I also do shoots and editing sessions with them. Some have high end camera equipment, computers/software and some have phones and nothing else, so I make it where they can all participate.

Your comments are ‘bang on’. Given the age of the people in the group, there are limitations. When we go on outdoor and especially indoor shoots we talk about the many ways to get a sharp image. In camera selection, image stabilization cameras or lenses, tripod or monopod, how to hold the camera, higher ISO and faster shutter speeds, with an understanding that the latter two will impact image quality. The course that I give is quite comprehensive as photography to the beginner is akin to learning a new language.

I have been there and done that as the old saying goes. You have received many good ideas, some excellent. So I will only put out some ideas that haven't been covered.

1. While it should not be a computer course, digital photography sans computers is impossible. There are some basic concepts and issues that need to be touched upon. The extent to which you spend time on them must depend upon the level of the students. For me, first and foremost must be how to copy image files from the camera/card to the computer and how to organize them on the computer. Of course, how to see them once they are on the computer is also needed.

2. I tried to make the case in my class that the definition of "composition" in digital photography is to a great extent inclusive of such things as depth of field, shutter speed and dynamic range, protecting highlights, etc. In my view, the composition is not merely the classical understanding but the photo characteristics that usually don't apply to, for example, a painting. Since my class was designed to emphasize the controls on the camera and their effect on the resulting image, I drew a figurative circle around controls, results and composition. It's not a common approach in my experience but I think that it worked Well. All my students already had digital cameras and computers.

just a note: I shamelessly used stuff from the internet to give examples of some of my points and since the class was free I didn't concern myself overly much with copyright issues. Fair use, right?

3. I tried to make the case for post-processing (raw or jpg) with some simple examples of cropping, exposure and red-eye and other easy but very impressive differences in the the final image. I think that succeeded.

I wish you the best. You can PM me if you want to ask more or bounce ideas, but you have a lot of really good stuff above this note already.