Despite the central role that well organized and structured course content plays in engaging learners, the authors point to the absence of guidelines for organizing content in ways that meet course learning goals. Recognizing the need for a design solution and, perhaps, the need for a new design framework, design patterns are proposed as an alternative. After describing the elements of a design pattern approach, the authors examine two design cases, demonstrating how the design pattern approach is an applicable design strategy for structuring course content. The authors conclude with a summary of the design pattern approach and four ways in which a design pattern approach facilitates the design process.