Yeah, it seems like this would be better served to be split into two (or more) courses if you're assuming almost no prior knowledge. "Software Engineering" is

Yeah, it seems like this would be better served to be split into two (or more) courses if you're assuming almost no prior knowledge. "Software Engineering" is a pretty ill-defined term, but I'd generally think of it as the _process_ of developing good software, and that sort of presupposes you can develop _any_ software. Coming in with some ad hoc ability to program (and probably some bad habits!) would be a plus - then the "process" part is actually solving a problem, rather than just feeling onerous.