I use Vim infrequently. I know it and if it was the only option I'd be efficient with it. I've even started with Vi as the only option. However I prefer Emacs because I feel way more efficient and comfortable with it. As a bonus main key bindings are consistent with Bash and others GNU tools. The course should introduce Emacs as well so that students can choose on their own. Whatever your preferred editor is IMHO it is up to an IDE to integrate with it.