This paper presents a study that applied both productive failure (PF) and authentic learning instructional approaches in online learning activities for early‐career process engineers' professional development. This study compares participants learning with either a PF (low‐to‐high [LH]) or a more traditional (high‐to‐low) learning sequence—the only difference between groups was the sequence of activities. In line with recent research on PF, this simple learning design tweak had a substantial effect—participants in the LH condition demonstrated significantly higher learning gains than those in the high‐to‐low condition on measures of conceptual knowledge and transfer. This paper concludes with implications for designing online learning experiences and discusses how careful attention to design decisions, such as activity sequence, can have a meaningful impact without increasing learning time.