The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the contributing factors that influence online instructors' decisions on course design and delivery strategies in higher education institutions. We conducted a principal component analysis with 81 online instructors across the United States of America to validate a conceptual framework that could potentially help instructional design departments to prepare faculty for teaching online. The finalized online teaching preference construct consists of three dimensions: general teaching beliefs, knowledge of online pedagogy, and institutional support. The online instructors' teaching fields, preferred instructional modality, and online teaching experiences influenced their preferences in these three dimensions. In addition, the instructors with only remote teaching experience in response to the COVID-19 crisis did not like teaching online. The implications of our findings are discussed in this paper.