Understanding the role of teaching presence in students' learning can help improve online teaching. This study explored the effects of online teaching presence on students' cognitive conflict and engagement by analyzing three rounds of a course taught with different levels of teaching presence. The participants were 132 students enrolled across the three rounds. Content and lag sequential analysis were used to explore the effects of teaching presence on students' cognitive conflict and learning engagement. The results show that design and facilitation can engage students in reflection and involve them in cognitive conflicts and cognitive engagement (p < 0.001). Moreover, timely facilitation and direct instruction had no significant effect on students' responses to cognitive conflict. These results illuminate the impact of teaching presence on students' learning engagement through cognitive conflict and provide instructors with practical guidance for online teaching.