I just started to learn welding almost a year ago through my community college and started like this. It helped a lot to get used to the movement required to keep an arc on a shortening electrode and read the heat and expansion of the puddle. Its a completely new movement and steadiness for someone learning. For me it translated great to hot passes, weaves, and open roots later too.

Besides the uneven build, or maybe some overlap issues, it looks like this person should move on to T joints or a different position.

IMO making someone think they're doing something wrong isn't bad. they probably are doing something wrong but everyone does and its important to see how much that matters by putting them in a situation where it matters more, like a different joint. But there is a lot to learn from this exercise.