It is not easy to describe a "learning design" in a consistent and transferable, which then will allow uncomplicated re-use. The "design", "model / template" or "recipe" needs to be described at a rather abstract level that would allow generalization beyond a single teaching /learning context, which has been created. However, the level of abstraction should not be so high as to lose its pedagogical value. This problem is aggravated when the developer begins to think about the creation, transportation (transfer) and re-use of the learning into the electronic learning environments. IMS-LD is designed precisely to solve this problem.

Although the benefits of involving learning design do exist whatever the way of delivery / distribution (electronic or face-to-face) is, they are particularly relevant for e-learning, which, unlike traditional face-to-face learning, is tempted to focus on content and services on behalf of (inter) action learning.

While Instructional Design in e-learning focused on learning objects as the basic entity in a course, Learning Design, as we have seen, is focused on learning activities. The basic reason for this change is the feeling shared by many educators that via learning objects too much emphasis is put on the delivery/distribution of the content, in disfavour of monitoring students’ activity. Virtual environments for e-learning (VLE) were designed to provide a simplistic model of content delivery. Although it is indisputable that a good and well structured content is important in creating a quality course, tasks, activities and dynamic interactions that occur between people (students and teachers) and software environment are equally important.

There are no ways to encode the characteristics of learning and teaching in the model predominantly based on content. We have to mention that manipulating the digital content in a web environment is a much easier technical task than modeling activities and sequences of learning activities.
The issue under discussion is crucial while approaching (via skills) students’ training process.