I'm assuming this is academia and teaching to undergraduates the foundations of programming / comp sci using Java (which I'm not sure should be many peoples fir

I'm assuming this is academia and teaching to undergraduates the foundations of programming / comp sci using Java (which I'm not sure should be many peoples first choice these days!). This situation is pretty common and has existed for time immemorial - undergraduate tutor's are not likely to be seasoned developers with significant real world experience - at least outside the top tier of institutes. Many new hires / junior devs seem to have had this experience, and often come in lacking any knowledge of pretty important concepts like version control, testing, http, etc. It's ok, they have the basics and can learn on the job but I do often wonder what it would be like if the curriculums mirrored the real world better. OP, hopefully no offence taken, the fact your coming here asking makes me think you'll do a fantastic job of this course! I don't have a java book recommendation, but if you could try and squeeze in aspects like testing, http frameworks, git and the basics of a Linux terminal you'd really be helping the students with prospective job interviews :) Edit: Wow just read course curriculum, Swing, CORBA, Servlets - throw in some XSLT and I am reliving the late 90s. OP - any chance you could swap some of these out for more modern solutions? Web interfaces / Rest / Dropwizard, spring, etc