[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mark,
The nice thing about Autocad is this... If you think that the software should be able to do something, Autocad already does it.
The bad thing about Autocad is this... You don't know what Autocad has named the function you want to use.
My suggestion would be to give the students a liittle basics then use what you have learned to draw something. Each class period throw in some more stuff and more drawing. Start with drawing lines, then join the lines. An explanation of the pick boxes on the screen and toggles at the bottom is a must. In the beginning just display the basic toolbar then add in more toolbars as you progress to other commands. Make a 2d drawing using lines i.e. a simple house or building. Then introduce object snap to draw from objects that are already drawn. A little easy dimensioning then on to more complex objects like circles and polygons, a little more object snap, a little more dimensioning. Some text using monotext, to demonstrate text insertion, then draw from text object snap and a little dimensioning.
At some point you need to set a goal list. I am sure that Autodesk must have something on their website that should help. Although each user does things differently, I prefer my users to get the hang of drawing with object snap and NO SNAP OR GRID turned on. A good, clean drawing should have all lines meet and that is extremely easy when you are drawing with reference to objects that are already in the drawing. You might have students take real life objects and convert them to drawings using dimensions they measure on the object. Eventually work in the power of layers, poly lines, zoom, and edit functions. If you have the time, move into 3D drawings with the same objects they had previously drawn in 2D. At one time, Autodesk had included some kind of teacher's aid that allowed you to only enable the commands that had been already covered but I don't know if the modern versions still do that.
I kind of rambled on there, but I think you get the big picture. Although Autocad is so much more precise than drawing with pencil it is so much more easy.