Book excerpt: In order to be successful, online learning should be planned systematically. It can be said that offering distance education courses without preparation and knowledge about the theoretical background can cause drawbacks. While distance education has become widespread and popular, it is observed that there could be problems in its application. Such problems can include technical problems, inability to meet the learning needs at the learners’ own speeds, lack of communication among learners and between learners and teachers, and lack of quality materials appropriate for online learning or the inclusion of materials used in traditional methods directly into online learning. For successful online courses, these critical aspects of distance education are important, and they should be taken into account by the institutions and the instructors offering online courses. The Handbook of Research on Managing and Designing Online Courses in Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments provides up-to-date knowledge and experiences regarding technologies, processes, and environments for online course design in distance education systems and covers topics related to the aspects of successful distance education systems with a focus on teaching and learning in online environments. Focusing on topics such as instructional design and integrated systems, it is an ideal guide for online course designers, instructional designers, curricula developers, administrators, educators, researchers, trainers, and students.