Instructional designers are not simply adapting to a single evolutionary development in the training continuum; they are operating at the nexus of a new generation of super technology users and a rapidly expanding landscape of learning theories, development platforms, and technical capabilities. These super users are warfighters who have unprecedented access to eLearning, presented in high-definition across familiar platforms, with just-in-time access to fast-track tutorials at their fingertips. At its core, immersive reality learning is a contemporary extension of eLearning, and while the shiny-object allure is attractive to both the warfighting learner and supporting organizations, there is a body of instructional design knowledge and research used successfully for decades and still translates effectively to today’s eLearning platforms. Even with cutting-edge extensions of eLearning such as immersive reality learning and performance support being fully realized today, technologists need not dismiss perceptively antiquated, but time-tested and effective approaches to adult learning and instructional design; the wisdom of the past can - and should - help to inform our developments of the present. This paper aims to explore the application of traditional instructional design approaches to meet the needs of today’s learner given emergent technologies in the new learning paradigm.
In the new learning paradigm, instructional designers continue longstanding implementation of core principles in andragogy and training development for next generation learners accessing next generation learning platforms. Front-end analyses remain critical at the outset of training development, ADDIE and SAM models continue to have value in the production pipeline as industry standard waterfall and Agile iterative methodologies, and Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation can still be used to measure participant learning and organizational change post implementation. This paper expounds the application of traditional instructional design approaches to meet the needs of today’s learner given emergent technologies in the new learning paradigm.