Content development and maintenance of geographic information systems (GIS) related courses, especially designed for distance and online delivery, could be a tedious task even for an experienced instructor. The paper outlines application of abstract instructional design techniques for modeling course structure and developing corresponding course content using the concept of learning objects. The paper elaborates on theoretical and methodological aspects of using learning object to design a family of the subject-related courses. Feasibility of the developed methodology is illustrated by the practical implementation using author-it component content management system. The developed course content pyramid, learning objects, and other course content components were used to compile lectures and laboratory assignments for different GIS courses, designed both for in-class and online delivery. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)