In higher education, designing online courses aligned with students' preferences impacts learning effectiveness. Our research aimed to investigate which learning design elements can affect the quality of online learning. To achieve this, we followed a systematic literature review, identified current trends and conducted an online survey outlining university students' opinions. The results revealed that students' preferences agree with universal learning design principles, acting as course quality determinants. These elements relate to the structure, appearance, content, interactivity of the course and support in the online setting. We recommend that courses are well organised and include authentic resources, activities and assessments, divided consistently into smaller, topic-based chunks that resemble experiences drawn from real life. The objectives need to be communicated while the expected behaviours are known to students. The respective workload must be equally distributed across the course spectrum in an environment that balances collaborative and self-paced learning. Students must be familiar with the technology, which is also an easy-to-access gate. Lastly, it is suggested that technical and pedagogical support is constantly present so that participants efficiently work in the online context.