I am engaged in a periodic review of educational objectives for a graphic design program that includes 3 typography courses. The first course provides a general introduction to the subject. The second is engaged in building sensitivity in practice. The third is targeted at fostering innovation in typographic practice.

The goal of the courses is to produce general practitioners, not type designers or other specialists. However, if someone chose to pursue a typographic specialty as their focus they could be accommodated in their research and senior portfolio classes.
So, what I am asking is input on specific current practices, skills, aptitudes, and where you believe that information should fit within the flow of the program as briefly outlined above.

For example: is facility with setting open type parameters a necessary skill/aptitude, and if so is it basic, intermediate, or advanced?

Thanks and eternal belessings from the ruler of the universal em to all who participate.