A Learning Design describes the educational process, not just courseware but the whole teaching/learning experience. It's a more or less formal description of a pedagogical scenario (also called educational script or storyboard) and that may or may not follow an instructional design model.

The process of learning design refers to the activity of designing units of learning, learning activities or learning environment.

Learning Designs are "pedagogically informed learning activities which make effective use of appropriate tools and resources" (Gráinne Conole and Karen Fill, creators of the DialogPlus Toolkit.)