The Universe teachpack comes with a server and a way for big-bang clients to communicate with the server.
I know that Marco Morazan's book includes material teaching how to use this system.
I am also aware that the official documentation is reasonably accessible.
I am looking for other sources to offer beginners that will help unravel the process.
Suggestions are appreciated.
Consider a look at Realm of Racket. It contains a couple of universe-based games. Hungry Henry is a good example.
All my freshman courses have used universe but I usually write the server and the protocol and divvy it up so the students can start programming to it as of week 2 or 3. Take a look at the sample syllabus: https://course.khoury.northeastern.edu/cs2500accelf17/syllabus.html (Students implemented a text-ing client; the semester after they did a mini-Spotify.) My approach uses the design recipe.
What I found is that having freshman students design the protocol and interaction (https://course.khoury.northeastern.edu/cs2500f13/syllabus.html) is a tight fit in a semester-long course. If you have a long semester (15 weeks) and students who follow the design recipe, it’ll fit better. (Marco teaches universe programming in the second semester of the first year, all *SL programming.)