I am looking 3-4 education publications (ie. papers, articles, and/or
journals) that describe educational software systems that
automatically or semi-automatically assist educators in building
courses (not necessarily just online courses).

I should first describe what I am not talking about: WebCT,
Blackboard, etc...  I am not seeking articles about software systems
that allow educators to post syllabus, lecture notes, etc.

What I am looking for is publications that describe systems that allow
educators to build (or rebuild) existing courses.  For example, let's
say you are an educator at Harvard teaching English 101.  As an
educator let's say you've compiled all of your course material into
some type of format that allows others to build a similar course using
your course as a model.

As point of reference, MIT has initiated an OpenCourseware initiative
that post all of the material for nearly all of its courses.  While an
educator could certainly use this material to build a similar course,
most of the effort would have to manual.  So OpenCourseware is not
something I'm looking for.

Then comes along another educator say from Yale.  This Yale educator
wants to build a similar English 101 course using the materials,
objectives and outcomes of the Harvard English 101 course.  This Yale
educator is able to use a software system that guides him/her through
a series of questions about how the replicated course will be
developed.  For example, the system might ask the Yale educator: a)
how many times will your class meet b) what objectives (from the
Harvard list) does the Yale educator want to meet c) the types of
material to be included in the course.  Afterwards, the software
system is capable of churning out a course set to the Yale educator's
specifications.

Related publications might also be considered.

Hi,

you might be interested by the sakai project http://sakaiproject.org/
"The Sakai Project is a $6.8M community source software development
project founded by the University of Michigan, Indiana University,
MIT, Stanford, the uPortal Consortium, and the Open Knowledge
Initiative (OKI). The project, which received a $2.4 million grant
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is producing open source
Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) software. Version 1.0 was
released in October, 2004. The Sakai Educational Partners Program
(SEPP) extends this community source project to other academic
institutions around the world, and is supported by the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation and SEPP member contributions.
"


also, you might have a look at coursework from stanford university
http://coursework.stanford.edu/


OnCourse from indiana university :
http://kb.indiana.edu/data/agku.html?cust=12940
"Oncourse is an online course environment that allows Indiana
University faculty and students to create, integrate, use, and
maintain Web-based teaching and learning resources. Oncourse offers a
straightforward way to create a Web site for every course offered at
the university. For students, Oncourse presents learning tools in a
single, consistent Web interface. For faculty, Oncourse provides a
framework for building teaching environments that can include
multimedia content and a wide range of online tools, without requiring
knowledge of programming or HTML. Using Oncourse, you can access
course syllabi and grades; communicate through Oncourse mail, chat
rooms, and discussion forums; and access online quizzes and surveys"

stellar from MIT
http://stellar.mit.edu/

Finally you might be interested by uportal




Since you 're looking for publications, these might be of some interest 
http://juicy.mellon.org/RIT/MellonOSProjects/OKI/OKIFinalReportExcerpts.pdf
http://et.its.psu.edu/public/sakai/sakaivtc.pdf

http://www.uportal.org/