Whether designing a new course or preparing to adopt a standardized curriculum, you will find it helpful to begin by clearly defining what you expect your students to have learned by the end of your course, deciding how you will assess student learning, finding the right materials that address all of you and your students needs, deciding who you are as an instructor and even asking what attitudes you want students to develop as a result of your course, such as love of the field; a critical, questioning stance toward texts; or an appreciation of cultural differences. All of this goes into effective course design.
Read through these course design pages for more on building a new course or re-envisioning an existing course.