Course delivery

Course delivery is post-launch of the course, with students enrolled and engaging. It can feel overwhelming to teach a course online, especially if it is something you have not done before, but there is help and support available

Course delivery guide

At the end of this course delivery phase, you will have considered: 

  • Demonstrated teacher presence and building an online scholarly community 
  • Monitoring and facilitating student engagement 
  • Providing formative feedback 
  • Assessing and grading assignments, evaluating academic integrity.

Reflect on each of the following questions with your team and use the guide information to aid your planning.

Demonstrated teacher presence is a cornerstone of effective online teaching and plays a critical role in fostering an online scholarly community. In the absence of physical co-presence, it’s important to be intentional about being visible, approachable, and engaged. This begins at the start of a course, where welcome messages, introductory videos, and early announcements help establish tone, expectations, and a sense of belonging. Regular communication throughout the course—such as weekly overviews, reflections on discussions, or short video summaries—signals that the course is actively taught rather than passively delivered.

Building a scholarly community involves creating spaces where students feel encouraged to contribute intellectually and respectfully. Structured discussion activities, clear participation guidance, and modelling of academic discourse help students engage meaningfully with peers and content. Teachers can reinforce community by acknowledging contributions, synthesising themes across discussions, and connecting student ideas to wider disciplinary debates. Inclusivity is key; community-building activities should recognise diverse cultural, professional, and geographic contexts, and offer multiple ways for students to participate. A strong teacher presence humanises the learning environment, supports motivation, and helps transform a group of distant learners into a connected academic cohort. 

Monitoring and facilitating student engagement is essential in online teaching, where disengagement can be less visible but more consequential. You can consider the use of LMS analytics and participation data to understand how students are interacting with course materials, activities, and assessments. Patterns such as low log-ins, missed formative tasks, or minimal discussion participation can indicate where students may be struggling or losing momentum. Facilitating engagement goes beyond observation. You can respond pedagogically to what the data reveals by adjusting pacing, revisiting challenging concepts, or offering additional guidance and encouragement. Prompt, supportive outreach—whether to individuals or the cohort—can re-engage students and demonstrate care without being intrusive.  

Engagement can also be enhanced through well-timed prompts, targeted questions in discussions, and opportunities for students to apply learning to authentic contexts. Importantly, engagement should not be reduced to activity counts alone. Qualitative indicators, such as the depth of discussion contributions or the quality of questions asked, provide richer insight into learning. By combining data-informed awareness with thoughtful facilitation, academics can maintain an active learning environment and support students in sustaining meaningful participation throughout the course. 

Formative feedback is a central teaching practice in online courses, where it often replaces spontaneous, in-class guidance. Effective formative feedback helps students understand their progress, identify areas for improvement, and build confidence before summative assessment. Academics should ensure that feedback is timely, specific, and clearly linked to learning outcomes and assessment criteria.  

Early formative activities are particularly valuable, as they help students calibrate expectations and academic standards at the start of the course. Online environments offer flexibility in how feedback is delivered. Written comments, audio recordings, short video responses, or whole-cohort feedback posts can all be effective, depending on scale and purpose. Group-level feedback that highlights common strengths and misconceptions can be especially efficient and pedagogically powerful in large cohorts. Where possible, feedback should encourage reflection and action, guiding students on how to apply comments to future work rather than simply justifying a mark. Academics should also consider feedback literacy, helping students understand how to interpret and use feedback effectively. Clear signposting, opportunities for follow-up questions, and alignment between formative and summative tasks ensure feedback is not only received, but meaningfully integrated into the learning process. 

Assessment and grading in online courses requires careful attention to clarity, consistency, and academic integrity. You should ensure that assessment instructions, marking criteria, and submission processes are unambiguous and well-aligned with learning outcomes. Transparent assessment design is particularly important for distance learners, who may not have informal opportunities to seek clarification. Rubrics and exemplars can support fairness and help students understand expectations.

Evaluating academic integrity online involves both preventative and evaluative approaches. Preventatively, academics can design authentic assessments that emphasise application, reflection, or personalised responses, making misconduct less likely. Clear guidance on collaboration, citation practices, and the appropriate use of tools (including AI, where relevant) helps set shared expectations. During marking, originality checking tools and pattern recognition across submissions can support judgement, but should be used alongside academic expertise rather than as sole arbiters.

When concerns arise, academics should follow institutional procedures carefully, ensuring consistency, proportionality, and proper documentation. At the same time, assessment remains a teaching act; constructive comments, even on summative work, help students understand standards and improve future performance. Rigorous, fair assessment reinforces trust in the course and upholds academic standards in the online environment.