From learning to doing: Principles for courses that build capability

Develop handles the learning design and assessment. You bring the context that makes the course useful: an understanding of your learners, the expectations and challenges they face on the job, and the guidance they need to succeed. Clear direction and strong source material help Develop build a course that reflects your organization’s expectations and the work your people actually do.

This guide offers practical recommendations for three areas: choosing use cases where Develop conversational learning fits best, providing resources with enough substance and context to support learning, and using nudges to help people recall and apply what they learned. Grounded in learning research and behavioral science, these recommendations help you make thoughtful choices before, during, and after course creation.

Principle 01  |  Choose the use case

Match the course to the work situation

Develop is best for building understanding, decision-making, and conversation skills. Pair it with hands-on practice when skills require other tools or settings.

Start with what people need to learn and how they’ll use it on the job. Develop is especially valuable when learning goes beyond simply receiving information to understanding, applying, and practicing it. It’s a strong fit for building foundational knowledge, helping people understand and apply organizational policies or processes, and preparing them to make decisions in realistic situations. It’s also well suited for practicing conversations, navigating challenging interactions, and strengthening leadership and management behaviors.

These use cases span a wide range of roles and learning needs, from onboarding new employees and preparing customer-facing teams to developing managers and helping employees adapt to new responsibilities. Develop gives learners opportunities to explain concepts in their own words, work through scenarios, consider different approaches, and practice responding to situations they may encounter on the job. Ask, “What do people need to know or do differently, and how could they practice it?”

Consider whether Develop can support the full learning experience or should be paired with another format. For example, a service representative could use Develop to practice deciding when to escalate a concern and how to explain the next step to a customer. If they also need to document the case, pair the course with hands-on practice in the actual system. Similarly, physical skills, visual tasks, and work that requires specialized tools benefit from practice in those environments. Develop can build the underlying knowledge and judgment, while other formats provide opportunities to perform the work itself. If the goal is simply to share information or raise awareness, without an expectation that people will do something differently, a clear communication or reference resource may be more appropriate.

Principle 02  |  Prepare source content

Choose resources that explain the work

Choose accurate, relevant sources that clearly explain what people need to know and how to apply it on the job.

Start with the resources your organization already uses, such as policies, playbooks, process guides, training materials, or recorded explanations. They don’t need to be designed as learning materials, but they should provide enough substance for Develop to teach the topic accurately and help learners apply what they’ve learned.

Focus on the quality and completeness of the content. Develop teaches from the sources you provide, so don’t assume it will fill in missing information. Look beyond whether a resource tells people what to do. Does it also explain why, when, and how? Strong sources provide clear guidance, explain the reasoning behind important decisions, and include enough context for learners to understand how the information applies to their work. If key explanations, expectations, or examples are missing, strengthen the material before uploading it.

Be selective about what you include. More content isn’t necessarily better. Choose resources that directly support what learners need to know and do. For lengthy documents, provide relevant excerpts or identify the sections to prioritize. When combining multiple sources, check that the guidance is consistent and provide context to clarify which materials take priority, what to emphasize, and what falls outside the course’s scope.

The goal isn’t to create a course before uploading your materials. It’s to give Develop accurate, relevant, and sufficiently detailed content to build a useful learning experience.

Principle 03  |  Prepare source content

Provide the context

Start with a strong primary resource, then add relevant context or explanations to fill gaps. Prioritize quality and relevance over the number of sources.

Your source materials provide the knowledge Develop teaches. The four setup questions help shape how it teaches, including the difficulty, focus, scenarios, and learning objectives. Think of your answers as a brief to someone designing the course for you. Be specific enough to guide the learning experience without having to design it yourself.

1. Describe your audience

Describe learners’ roles, experience, and familiarity with the topic. Avoid broad labels like “all managers.” Explain what they already know and where they may need support. This helps Develop tailor the language, complexity, and scenarios to the audience.

2. What should they do on the job?

Describe what learners should be able to do, not just what they should understand. Use observable actions such as explain, decide, respond, or demonstrate. Be specific about the situations they need to handle and what successful performance looks like. If there are multiple learning outcomes, include each one so Develop can organize the course accordingly.

3. What do people get wrong?

Identify common mistakes, misconceptions, or situations where people struggle, even after training. Be specific about what goes wrong and why, rather than making general statements about knowledge or motivation. This helps Develop focus additional practice and guidance where learners need it most.

4. Special instructions or direction?

Use this question to provide direction that may not be clear from your sources. Clarify what to emphasize, which materials take priority, and anything outside the course’s scope. You can also specify a preferred learning format, such as roleplay, suggest the number of modules, or explain organizational expectations that aren’t documented elsewhere.

Principle 04  |  Reinforce learning

Reinforce learning with nudges

Use nudges to prompt recall and application of learning.

Completing a course is only the beginning. People need opportunities to revisit what they’ve learned and apply it in their everyday work. Nudges help bridge that gap by reinforcing key concepts and encouraging small, practical actions over time.

With Activate, Develop automatically generates three course-related nudges, delivered weekly after completion. While the platform creates the nudges, you play an important role in deciding when they’re useful, making sure they’re relevant, and helping learners put them into practice.

Decide when nudges add value

Not every course needs follow-up nudges. They’re most valuable when learners need to remember, practice, or consistently apply what they’ve learned over time.

Keep nudges on when the course builds skills that benefit from repeated practice, reinforces guidance people need to apply consistently, or prepares learners for situations they’ll encounter in the coming weeks.

Consider turning nudges off when the course primarily builds awareness, supports a one-time need, or offers limited opportunities to apply the learning afterward.

Review nudges before inviting learners

When nudges are enabled, review the generated content to make sure it fits your audience and their work. Edit nudges where needed to improve their fit, or hide those that aren’t appropriate. Consider:

• Relevance: Do the nudges reinforce the most important skills or concepts from the course and connect to realistic work situations?
• Timing: Will learners have opportunities to use the skills in the weeks following the course?
• Feasibility: Do learners have the time, tools, authority, and support to take the suggested actions?
• Organizational fit: Do the nudges reflect your organization’s expectations, terminology, and ways of working?

Set expectations and reinforce learning on the job

Position nudges as part of the learning experience from the start. Let learners know they’ll receive brief follow-up prompts designed to help them remember and apply what they’ve learned, rather than additional training or tasks. Encourage them to look for opportunities to try the suggested behaviors in their normal work.

Reinforcement is even more valuable when managers and the work environment support it. Encourage managers to ask what employees have tried, discuss what worked, and help address barriers. Look for ways to connect the learning to existing team routines, upcoming work, and relevant priorities rather than creating separate activities.

References

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Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380.

Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology (H. A. Ruger & C. E. Bussenius, Trans.). Teachers College, Columbia University. (Original work published 1885)

Grossman, R., & Salas, E. (2011). The transfer of training: What really matters. International Journal of Training and Development, 15(2), 103–120.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.

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