We all know that students are more successful when they have a deep interest in course materials or strong thinking skills.  Similarly, we know we can help students do better when assessment is transparent. However, we are less aware of the impact that our course design has on likely student persistence and success. In online and remote environments, here are some key predictors of success controlled by how you design your course: Key factors: Student engagement with learning activities like posting on discussion boards or taking optional online quizzes to check their understanding (Zacharis, 2015) is a  likely predictor of student success.  Interestingly, time logged in and reading or viewing…