The article considers one of the most relevant issues of modern education in general and university professional training in particular. The subject matter of the paper is the description of fundamental psychological notions and theories that can be implemented to foster online course development efficiency. The concepts described are cognitive theory and behaviorism. The authors justify a set of pedagogical approaches that are to be incorporated while creating online courses. The approaches discussed are the constructivist, the neurobiological and the postmodern ones. The article provides the deliberation and results of the conducted experiment to prove the theoretical assumptions on above mentioned psychological and pedagogical issues.