Freelance e-learning design
I'm David Sharkey. I've delivered well over a hundred courses for large organisations. Writing, design, graphics and the technical build all sit with one person, so there's less to coordinate and nothing falls between the gaps.
A little about me
I came into e-learning the long way round. I started as a web designer, building course websites in WordPress with LearnDash, and found I enjoyed the courses more than the sites. Ten years on, I work with large organisations in tech, pharmaceutical and finance, usually as the person who can take a course the whole way, or step in wherever it's needed.
I'm based in Inverness and work with clients wherever they are.
What I do
I work in a few different ways, depending on what you need.
From a blank page
I can scope a project, write it, build it and revise it, from start to finish. If you know the outcome you're after but not how to get there, I can shape the whole thing.
From your materials
Often a client hands me a slide deck or existing content and asks for a course. That's a perfectly good place to start, and I'll make the most of what you have, tightening it, structuring it and turning it into something people can actually learn from.
The tricky technical work
Complex, logic-based courses. Variables and branching. Pre-assessments that adapt to the learner. Accessibility fixes on courses that aren't behaving. It's often what people come to me for.
Localisation and translation
I've worked extensively on localisation projects: exporting XLIFF files for translation, importing them back in, then checking the course carefully in its new language and amending anything that's shifted, from spacing and layout to text that no longer fits, so the translated version works as well as the original.
The tools I work with
I build in three main authoring tools, and I'll suggest whichever suits the project rather than defaulting to a favourite.
Evolve
Five yearsI've used Evolve for five years and know it inside out. It's my first choice for anything involving branching, pre-assessments, logic or variables, and its wide range of components makes it very flexible. It's also highly customisable and handles company branding well, so a course can properly look like yours rather than like a template.
Rise
Quick and cleanRise is simpler and more straightforward, and that's often a strength: there's less to fiddle with, so development is quicker. When a project needs something more bespoke, I use the custom code block and custom blocks to build interactions that Rise doesn't offer as standard.
Storyline
Scenarios and simulationsStoryline has been the industry standard for a long time, and it's still one of the most powerful and flexible tools around. It's well suited to logic-based courses, with triggers, variables, layers and states giving close control over how a course behaves. Its slide-based way of working feels familiar to anyone used to PowerPoint and makes existing slides easy to bring in, and it's particularly strong for scenario-based learning and software simulations, where people can watch a process and then practise it themselves. Courses publish cleanly to SCORM and xAPI for any LMS.
Skills
The tools and skills I bring to a project, whether I'm building the whole thing or picking up one part of it.
Authoring and build
Design and media
Technical
AI tools
Working on projects
What I'm like to work with
A few things clients tend to notice.
I'm responsive, so emails get answered quickly and projects keep moving. I'm creative, always looking for a fresh way to present information rather than reaching for the obvious layout. And I'm a genuine all-rounder: writing, graphics and video all sit within one pair of hands, so there are fewer people to coordinate and fewer gaps to fall through.
I also keep an eye on where things are heading. I work comfortably with AI and I'm always testing emerging tools, so the courses I build stay current rather than dating the moment they're published.
My work
I keep client work off this site out of respect for the organisations I work with. I'm very happy to share a private portfolio, though. Tell me a little about your project and I'll send the examples that are actually relevant to it.
Ask for my portfolioHave a project in mind?
The easiest way to start is an email. Tell me roughly what you're after, even a rough idea is fine, and I'll come back to you quickly.
Email me