What assessments must be completed and how they must be completed. What qualifications or knowledge is assumed before the course takes place. What forms of learning will be used - and in particular whether the course will involve travel to a site at the University of Plymouth at some point. How failure of a course will be handled - and what support can be given to students who are failing. The PILL system itself is designed to make the it clear exactly what support and guidance a student has available.
PILL has many systems to to allow tutors to incorporate direct and indirect support at a distance.
Assessment results can be easily summarised on any course page. The standard of education being provided by the course should reflect the high standards normal expected by students within Higher Education. All courses on PILL are expected to be independently evaluated either by an external assessor or an assessment team. For example, the Using the Internet for Business Course has been assessed by the external assessor for the Adapt Cucol project, while the Headstart in Biology course has been extensively assessed by the project team and the original funders of the project. All courses on PILL are expected to have been tested before they become generally available as a genuine set of distance learning materials.