Corporate Training vs Education in eLearning Instructional Design

The eLearning world is of course, large and diverse, but it can also be broken down into two main categories - corporate training and education.

Certainly, both types of learning share lots of similarities, but the type of materials designed in each of the categories are quite different.

In addition, the types and length of the courses and modules often differ as well.

Corporate Learning

In a corporate setting, the learning environment involves on-boarding - training on everything an employee needs to know about the company
and getting learning information about how to best execute their roles.

It’s also important to consider the ages and schedules of those who
use eLearning in a corporate setting. Unlike the majority of learners in education,
professionals are likely to have more serious obligations outside of
work.

With that in mind, courses at the corporate level are often shorter or use micro-learning (bite-sized learning).

Higher Education Learning

Within the educational field, eLearning either replaces traditional instructional methods or integrates with it.

It helps to present subjects like of all kinds in education. eLearning in education provides, collects, and scores homework assignments, and also offers supplemental materials to help learners expand on certain topics within the subject matter.

Unlike in the corporate setting, eLearning is the means of communication in
education. Learners are presented with the content via their courses and modules, and while they probably have outside assignments (reports, exams, etc.), it’s also possible that the entire course may be held within the eLearning platform.

In the education setting, courses are most often created with the assumption that being a student is the number one priority. Therefore courses tend to be longer and more involved.

Micro-learning modules are often set up for homework or as additional resources.

With eLearning courses, learners aren't completely left on their own. Even in the case of distance-learning, they’ll have a way of communicating with their instructor to receive additional clarification or guidance.

This means that while each course and module should be comprehensive, there should be room for outside discussion.