One of the main decisions a designer of learning interventions has to make is the social context best suited to the learning requirement, the audience characteristics and the practical contsraints and opportunities. The main options that the designer has to choose from are self-study, one-to-one learning and learning in a group. I have obviously been wasting my time trying to convince designers of the need for a rational and considered choice here, because there’s a much simpler alternative available. A participant in a recent workshop, who works for a major financial services company, explained how the choice was made in his organisation: if you’re at the top of the organisation, you get one-to-one assistance, probably in the shape of some form of executive coaching. If you’re middle management, you get group training in classrooms. Below this level, well self-study e-learning will do the job just nicely. The implication is simple: the higher your status in the organisation, the more expensive the approach. Who needs instructional design?
Source: Clive Shepherd