I agree that learning management is an often overlooked component of the instructional design process. Stephen Draper is correct in saying that there are numerous functions which traditional methods and media are fulfilling that go unnoticed until we try to replace them with something new. This is not necessarily bad, simply reality. The fact is that any system is much more complicated than it appears on the surface. When systems of instruction have existed fundamentally unchanged for decades, we no more notice their details anymore than we notice the particulars of the pictures that have hung on our walls for the last five years or so.
That said, I would suggest examining how medical science has dealt with new time-saving technologies and patient management. Although it is not an exact replica of instructional design, I propose that there are strong parallels. While a thorough analysis is beyond the scope of my current time schedule, I will set forth this example.
As recently as twenty years ago, doctors handled patient management almost entirely. Upon arriving in the examining room, a patient was meet by the doctor, examined and questioned entirely by the doctor, and received medication or shots from the doctor. (Incidentally, I am using the medical practices of the United States as my example.)
Today, this patient management technique has changed. Of thirty minutes a patient spends in an examining room, he or she may interact with the doctor perhaps only five to ten minutes. The doctor still prescribes the content and method of treatment. The majority of the patient management, however, is carried out by nurses or medical assistants. The drive behind this is to increase efficiency with respect to both time and cost.
An honest evaluation of educational systems--public or private, K-12 or higher--will reveal that both time and cost are important administrative concerns. Designers must address efficiency of learner management if they wish to see their designs adopted and maintained. How this comes about is very much still in question. If the trend in the medical field presages developments in the educational field, we may see a basic shift in the relationship between curriculum and instruction. Currently curriculum is developed out of contact with the student population and does not address learner management. The educational institution then relies on trained educational professionals (professors and teachers) to translate the curriculum into instruction to facilitate student learning. It is here that learner management currently takes place. The current system is expensive in that, for the learner management to be effective, there must be a low student to professor/teacher ratio. One possibility is the down-sizing of degreed/certified instructional staff with smaller groups of these professionals designing instructional units which integrate curriculum with instruction (instructional design) and an increase in the numbers of teaching assistants/paraprofessionals who will handle the issues of learner management.
Again, this is only speculation on what could happen if education where to follow in the steps of medicine. The important thing here is that Stephen Draper is correct. Learner management is important. We in the instructional design field must include it in our designs or perish beneath the onslaught of time concerns, cost concerns, and overall user frustration.