This paper sets out to inform how technology can be designed to support formal workplace training by acknowledging the context of every day work. The research in this paper follows the approach of design science research and a design theory for e-training through web lectures emerged in collaboration with members of the county administration through four designcycles of problem awareness: conceptual suggestion, system development, and evaluation. Aframework called authentic e-learning with nine design principles was chosen as a kernel theory.The design principles were then evaluated in the context of workplace learning and after four design cycles some of the original design principles was still unaltered, some was adapted to the conditions of workplace learning and new principles emerged from the evaluation process.