One simple format that I would like to have is like the topic format but without the word "topic"; This way, I can name the different blocks (that used to be topics) like I want them. I have used the topic format this way for a single week course, where we had one 'topic' for every day!
Then the first two blocks could be two consecutive weeks, the third is a topic, the fourth assignments, and so on. The idea is that the names and descriptions define what the content and the structure are. So some of the blocks contains modules to be used at specific times, other contain modules to be used at all times but for different purposes.
The next feature would be the ability to give each kind of blocks their visual identifier, but still within the theme: an icon, color, line type... But I know that this can easily get too ugly.