What would you suggest as an alternative plan for shepherding 10 random dudes and their homegrown laptops into a consistent state of python + pip installed?
Im sure that VMs have been tested and done as well, bringing their own different issues. We could add another layer of abstraction, like some type of orchestration tool, but then that needs to be supported and there will still be issues with the system underneath.
Maybe stat with something like lambda in AWS using their cloud9 instance as an IDE? It will cost a few $ but might help with the basics. However, this would only be good for very limited learning, so maybe add a small sysadmin crash course after that?
So maybe schedule it similar to this:
Basics: 10 days of coding in lambda using dynodb etc.
Systems: 2 days of devops using python to setup and control the environment
Rest of the course ....