Objective: To develop a totally online reality-based course that engages students and enables the development of enhanced teamwork and report-writing skills.

Setting: Outbreaks of infectious diseases impacts upon commerce, trade and tourism as well as placing strains on healthcare systems. A general course introducing university students to epidemiology and public health would help public education into the consequences of worldwide outbreaks.

Methods: Scaffolding of course activities was used to enable students to build upon skill acquisition and development. Student feedback was used to continuously improve the course.

Results: The course enables around 80 students per year to engage efficiently and effectively with the courseware. Student satisfaction was high and has improved with fine-tuning of the course.

Conclusions: We have developed an effective team-based course that has high student engagement and satisfaction. The model could be used to effectively deliver other science-based courses online.