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Effective communications is essential to the student's learning outcomes. Employing scaffolding will help by leveraging existing knowledge.

Learning modules need to be consistent in size and language usage among other considerations. Develop these with the student's learning needs in mind.

Logically organized courses help students make sense of the expected requirements and outcomes; how one part builds on previous phases. Applying the principles of the ISD method has been shown to lead to success; applying ISD to your course helps with proper development. 

The instructional techniques used in the onsite classroom can be implemented in the online classroom as well. Be sure to give students opportunities to apply course content as part of the learning environment. Develop appropriate feedback to incorrect responses on quizzes and tests; immediate feedback helps students by preventing inaccurate information from becoming ingrained.

Tailor learning activities to meet the learning outcomes. Practically, every technique used in the classroom environment can be replicated in a virtual course.

Online course offerings are ever increasingly popular. Having a good understanding of how to organize online courses to allow students to easily navigate through the course content is essential to instructional success via online offerings.

Record keeping and effectively managing how those records are kept needs to be addressed before the course begins. Anticipate different challenges students can face taking online courses, either from their personal life demands or from other students that may alienate their student peers. Have a strategy for dealing with these challenges that includes guidance from institutional policies and procedures.

Asynchronous discussions offer advantages for student participation that they may not always have with synchronous discussions, such as time to develop their inputs. Be sure to provide your instructor feedback that summarizes the student's discussions. When using synchronous discussions, set a time limit and ensure to keep students on topic.

Establish one-on-one relationship with each student. Be available and responsive to students throughout the course; provide feedback to questions/inputs NLT 24 hours after students post them.  

Structuring the course with the student in mind is important. In order to develop an understanding of the student's viewpoint requires reviewing the course as a student.