How you design your online course directly affects the participants’ performance in the course, whether it is instructor led, self-paced, or any other modality. The design of the course matters: It either reflects or helps to create the learning culture within the organization. Peter Drucker coined the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and in the same vein, my mantra is “culture eats content for lunch.”

Just like we know how to create high-performing teams at work, we know how to develop high-performing online courses. A high-performance classroom is one where the learners achieve higher-than-normal outcomes and can creatively solve complex issues by using their learned content. Employees will be able to readily apply what they have learned in a way that adds value to the organization. Creating a high-performance classroom requires synthesizing evidence-based strategies and theory to create psychological safety and set high standards within the course. Psychological safety and high standards lead to both high-performing teams and high-performance courses.

Spoiler alert: Typical e-learning does not create a high-performance classroom. The course where you learn a topic, take a quiz, and move on does not create high performance, because it is not evidence-based and does not foster a psychologically safe environment where learners thrive. These types of classes foster the opposite: People just want to get them done.

Let’s focus on creating a high-performance, self-paced e-learning environment. Typical courses focus on providing content. This mindset is wrong. Instead, thinking people first, content second helps create an environment where learners thrive. You can do this by keeping the learner in mind and using a three-step process.

The first step is to help the learner connect the content to their previous knowledge and experience. This action shows learners that they, and the skills and knowledge they bring to the table, are valued. A simple strategy for this is predicting: Have learners predict what they will learn and how it will connect with what they already know or have experienced. You could have the learner write something in a text box and then receive immediate feedback about what the course will include. Accessible video is excellent for this.

The second step is to vary the content delivery. Video is a powerful tool, but it is only sometimes the answer, just like training isn’t the answer for every issue at work. Interleaving, distributed practice, and review sections with practice are just a few of the evidence-based strategies you can use to help foster that high-performance learning environment.

Assessment is the third step. Although third step is a bit of a misnomer, because we should integrate assessment into everything we do. Create assessments throughout the learning process. For learners to effectively apply the content, we must create assessments that go beyond basic knowledge and recall. Try creative assessments.

Here is the basic blueprint for the high-performance, self-paced course:

• Think learner first, content second. Culture eats content for lunch.

• Connect to the learner’s previous experience or create curiosity (Brod, Cavanaugh).

• Vary the content with interleaving, distributed practice, and varied practice. (Use more than just video.)

• Assess. The assessments should be creative and require both critical and creative content application.

Following this blueprint will allow you to create meaningful and effective self-paced e-learning experiences.