Marketing shows teaching and learning from a different point of view than the pedagogical. It requires definition of target groups, discovery and identification of their educational needs and identification of necessary resources and finances. In many cases, ODL courses are sold and proper marketing is required to explain its advantages to potential participants.

Marketing addresses several important topics – benefits of the course, expected outputs, people involved, strategy, delivery solutions, ICT issues, target groups, preparation of a financial plan, etc. Marketing divides the lifecycle of an ODL course into 3 phases: preparation, implementation, and evaluation. In each phase it takes the point of view of a future participant of the course – their expectations, awareness of their preexisting knowledge, ways of learning and, as the most important aspect, their satisfaction.

An institution planning to offer ODL courses should consider the reasons for and against the decision to offer ODL training courses. There are many questions that should be answered before a decision is taken and this chapter helps to answer them.