Right now when the user goes to site admin > courses > manage courses and categories and creates a new course we just give them an empty course settings page. Is there a way we can suggest they search Moodle.net (or whatever hubs they have configured) and possibly pull down a course from there as a starting point instead of having them start with an empty course?

The Community Finder block currently provides this search functionality but it is not integrated into the course creation process at all. You have to know about the block's existence and remember to go add the block somewhere then go to the block and search.

Reasons:

1) Starting with a pre-made course may well save a bunch of time Vs starting with an empty course.

2) The more people download courses, the more people will be motivated to upload courses.