Custom eLearning Development

Custom eLearning development, designed in Dublin and built in Cape Town.

LearnFrame designs and builds custom eLearning programmes for professional certification bodies, regulated training providers, corporate academies and content-rich organisations in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Europe and internationally. A first programme typically runs three to six months from brief to launch. Every engagement starts with a paid discovery and scoping phase of four to six weeks that ends in a written diagnosis and a fixed-scope quote, so nothing is built before the scope is agreed. Strategic and creative direction sits in Dublin; instructional design, content development, multimedia, accessibility and quality assurance run through an established Cape Town team, under one accountable lead.

In plain terms

What custom eLearning development involves, how long it takes, and what it costs.

What it involves

Six stages, in order

Diagnosis of the existing programme and its learners. Programme architecture: what is taught, in what order, and what is assessed. Instructional design of each module. Content development, media and any scenario or simulation work. Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA and packaging for the platform (SCORM, xAPI or a hosted player). Pilot, revision and handover, with the client owning the outcome. The full build, stage by stage, is written up separately.

How long it takes

Three to six months for a first programme

Discovery and scoping, four to six weeks. Design and build, eight to sixteen weeks depending on content volume and the amount of scenario and media work. Embed and transfer, four to eight weeks. A single module or pilot can be live in six to eight weeks. A library conversion of many modules runs on a monthly production cadence rather than a single project.

What it costs

Scoped, quoted, then built

Cost is driven by content volume, the level of interaction the outcomes require, media, languages, accessibility and how much of the source material is ready. Most published cost figures in circulation trace back to one 2010 dataset; this article explains where the numbers come from, and the Programme Cost Calculator shows which of your own decisions move the price. Every LearnFrame engagement is quoted at a fixed scope after discovery, never from a rate card.

What finished looks like

A live programme you can complete now

AI for Professional Practice, Module 1 is a scenario-based CPD programme LearnFrame designed and built for regulated professionals. It runs in a browser, takes about twenty minutes, scores judgement rather than recall, and is open to anyone at learnframe.com/course/ai-for-professional-practice/module-1/. It is the fastest way to judge the standard of the work before a conversation.

Based in Ireland or the UK? See custom eLearning development for organisations in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

What we develop

The shape of custom eLearning development work.

Every engagement is scoped from the brief defined in the discovery phase. The categories below describe the typical shapes engagements take.

Modernisation

Certification programme modernisation

Flagship classroom programmes redesigned for a digital-first market. Instructional architecture, cohort experience, assessment, and platform packaging, designed for members who expect a programme to feel like a credential, not a download.

Conversion

Classroom-to-digital conversion

Conversion of existing face-to-face programmes into structured digital learning. Pacing, assessment design, faculty presence, and community moments rebuilt for asynchronous and blended delivery.

Compliance

Regulated and compliance training

Compliance, professional development, and licensed training programmes for regulated industries. Built to meet regulator expectations and updated as the regulatory picture moves: AML, data protection, financial services, EU AI Act readiness, sector-specific compliance.

Library development

Course library and catalogue development

Course library expansion for content-rich organisations with a backlog to digitise. Editorial frameworks, content operations, and production capacity to move volume without sacrificing learning design discipline.

Microlearning

Microlearning and modular pathways

Short-form modules and learning pathways for working professionals. CPD frameworks, microlearning portfolios, and adaptive learning design, content that fits inside the working week rather than asking for time the learner does not have.

AI-supported

AI-supported content workflows

AI-supported content workflows where AI is used to accelerate well-structured work, not as a substitute for instructional design. Human judgement on what good looks like; AI on production cadence.

Who we work with

Four buyer types, each with a recognisable shape of work.

Professional certification bodies

Pan-European institutes modernising flagship programmes for a younger membership and a digital-first market.

Regulated training providers

Compliance, professional development, and licensed training providers digitising programmes to meet regulator and learner expectations.

Corporate academies

In-house learning functions inside large employers, onboarding, leadership development, and technical certification at scale.

Content-rich organisations

Established providers digitising face-to-face programmes, executive education, membership bodies, and specialist content publishers.

How we work

A three-phase engagement structure.

The shape of each phase varies by engagement; the structure does not.

Phase 1 · 4 to 6 weeks

Discovery & scoping

A paid phase to understand the business, audit existing learning assets, and define the scope of the work that follows. Concludes with a written diagnosis and a fixed-scope quote for Phase 2.

Phase 2 · variable

Design & build

Programme architecture, instructional design, content development, multimedia, accessibility, and platform packaging move ahead against the scoped brief. Cadence and milestones agreed at the outset.

Phase 3 · 4 to 8 weeks

Embed & transfer

Knowledge, processes, and capability transfer to the client team. The engagement winds down with the client owning the outcome, not dependent on continued LearnFrame involvement.

Decision Guide

The Programme Design Decision Guide.

A practical guide for organisations evaluating a custom eLearning development engagement, the six dimensions of programme design, five questions to ask before committing, and the indicative shape of engagement at LearnFrame.

In the guide

What you'll find inside

  • The design discipline gap, and the three patterns that produce most underperforming programmes
  • The six dimensions of programme design, pacing, cohort, faculty, assessment, member experience, production craft
  • The five module-level decisions, outcome, interactivity, media richness, accessibility, ownership
  • The five questions the executive team should ask before approving any custom eLearning investment
  • The honest column, where money is well spent in custom eLearning, and where it's typically wasted
  • A scoping worksheet your team can take to its internal conversation

A 20-page PDF. Approximately 35 minutes to read.

A PDF download. No follow-up unless you ask for one.

How an engagement works

A clear path from question to programme.

Every engagement begins with a discovery and scoping phase that produces a written diagnosis and a fixed-scope plan, so the work ahead is defined before anyone commits to building it. No open-ended retainers, no ambiguous deliverables.

Scope, timeline, and approach are agreed up front and shaped around your programme, every one is different, so they are set deliberately rather than from a template. If after discovery either side decides not to proceed, the diagnosis stands on its own as your asset. Where a programme needs to stay current after launch, ownership and maintenance are designed in from the start.

Why this model

Integrated direction and production, under one accountable lead.

Strategic and creative direction from Dublin. Production through an established Cape Town team. Two locations, one engagement, one point of accountability.

Dublin direction

Diagnosis, scoping, programme architecture, editorial framework, creative direction, and client accountability sit in Dublin. The seat that decides what good looks like for the learner stays close to the buyer.

Cape Town production

Instructional design execution, content development, multimedia, accessibility, and quality assurance through an established Cape Town team. English-language, time-zone aligned with Ireland, supported by a mature creative industry base.

Three decades of foundation

LearnFrame is built on a career that began at CBT Systems in Dublin, the first eLearning company in the world to IPO on Nasdaq, in 1995. Two hundred-plus digital learning titles produced under direction across the years since.

More on Delivery & Production →
Selected Work

The shape of the work, in practice.

A recent discovery and scoping engagement, what gets diagnosed, what the quote covers, and how the trial-first architecture is structured.

Discovery & Scoping · 2026

Professional certification body: CPD modernisation

A regulated certification body with a ~100-module portfolio of CPD content on a legacy authoring platform. Four-week scoping phase: written diagnosis, scoped quote, and architectural recommendation delivered to the institute's Learning Solutions team.

Read the case study →
Founder Perspective · 1996 to 2026

Offshore, done properly, thirty years building the model

From Barbados and Cape Town in the 1990s through SourceSkills and Skillsoft to NIIT, three decades on every side of offshore learning production, and the one lesson that built LearnFrame's Dublin-direction, Cape-Town-production model.

Read the case study →

Discuss a brief.

A thirty-minute introductory conversation to understand the situation and explore the shape of work that would fit, or whether a brief at all is the right next step. If you would rather start smaller, the fixed-fee Programme Design Diagnostic gives you an independent, board-ready read on one programme first.

Arrange a Conversation The Programme Design Diagnostic →

Custom eLearning development: common questions

What is custom eLearning development?

Custom eLearning development is the design and build of a digital learning programme around one organisation's content, learners and outcomes, rather than a generic course bought off the shelf. It covers diagnosis, programme architecture, instructional design, content and media development, assessment design, accessibility and packaging for delivery through SCORM, xAPI or a hosted player.

How much does custom eLearning development cost?

It depends on content volume, the level of interaction the outcomes require, media, languages, accessibility and how ready the source material is. Most cost figures quoted online trace back to a single 2010 study of hours per finished hour. LearnFrame does not publish a rate card: every programme is quoted at a fixed scope after a paid discovery phase, so the figure fits the programme rather than a template. The Programme Cost Calculator on this site shows which decisions move the price.

How long does a custom eLearning project take?

A first programme typically takes three to six months from brief to launch: four to six weeks of discovery and scoping, eight to sixteen weeks of design and build, and four to eight weeks of embedding and handover. A single module or pilot can be live in six to eight weeks.

Should we build custom content or buy an off-the-shelf library?

Buy off the shelf when the topic is generic and the same for every organisation, such as basic software skills. Build custom when the content is your own, when a credential depends on it, or when the learner has to make decisions specific to your standards. Many organisations do both: a library for generic topics and custom programmes for the ones that define them. LearnFrame has written a fuller guide to telling which you need.

Who is custom eLearning development for?

Professional certification bodies, regulated training providers, corporate academies and content-rich organisations that need a programme designed around their own members, standards and assessment. LearnFrame works with organisations in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Europe and internationally.

Do you develop eLearning for certification bodies and professional bodies?

Yes. Credential-bearing CPD programmes for certification and professional bodies are LearnFrame's core work, with assessment-first design and a focus on keeping credentials current. LearnFrame also licenses its own CPD programme, AI for Professional Practice, to professional bodies under their own name.

Where is LearnFrame based and where is the work done?

LearnFrame is based in Dublin, Ireland. Diagnosis, scoping, programme architecture and creative direction are led from Dublin. Design, development, multimedia, accessibility and quality assurance run through an established English-speaking team in Cape Town, South Africa, one to two hours ahead of Dublin and London, under a single accountable lead.