Virtual Delivery and Scale

The wider usage of virtual delivery began in the post-9/11 era and accelerated during the financial crisis of the late 2000s in response to both aversion toward travel and budget cuts or restrictions. These forays into virtual delivery helped designers and learners gain both comfort and proficiency with this means of learning. Today and into the future, aided by improvements in the technology itself, virtual delivery will continue to play an important role in scaling solutions and reaching a global and dispersed audience, while maintaining quality and effectiveness that is on par or perhaps even greater than an in-person learning experience.

Simulations and Virtual Reality

Simulations attempt to replicate real-life situations so learners can examine the various dynamics at play, assess options, and take actions to engage via technology in a simulated environment. Learners can practice and receive feedback on their performance as a way to improve their knowledge and skills in a safe environment prior to beginning actual on-the-job application and performance. The military and airline industries were two early forerunners of using simulation technologies to mirror combat situations and flight experiences respectively. While not an exact replication, the intent is for the simulation to get as near to reality as possible, narrowing the separation between the simulation and real life so that when the time for actual performance comes, there's a level of proficiency that has already been acquired.

The same is true of virtual realities, where environments or worlds are created that enable one or multiple people to interact with elements of the environment and with one another. Similar to simulations, virtual realities may attempt to replicate real life. Some virtual realities are limited to one person or a few people interacting with the environment while others may engage millions of people simultaneously. Massive player virtual reality games such as Minecraft and World of Warcraft are examples. A virtual reality example from the business world is created by an organization to replicate the recruiting and selection process by way of a virtual job fair. In such an environment, prospective employees can enter different rooms to learn about the organizations, ask questions, and even engage in interviews with a recruiter. Another example is a virtual reality created for new hire orientation and onboarding.

One barrier associated with using these sorts of technologies has been high up-front costs to build a customized solution. If simulations involve physical equipment that goes beyond the computer-based technology only, as with a flight simulator, costs can soar into the millions of dollars. A single flight simulator may cost millions. As with any purchasing decision, the investment must be weighed against the potential benefits and costs to determine whether to proceed. Standard simulations and virtual realities that are more off-the-shelf, with or without some ability to tailor and customize, are becoming more common, driving down the up-front expense while retaining many of the benefits.

There are nearly limitless applications of simulation, virtual reality, and game-based learning approaches. As technology becomes more sophisticated, costs decrease, and the user experience grows increasingly more realistic and true-to-life, these approaches to learning and performance improvement will grow increasingly commonplace and move into more everyday life and work situations that can be simulated before trying.

Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Learning, and Wearable Technology

Ubiquitous computing refers to the computer science concept of providing computing everywhere. Ubiquitous computing untethers the person from the traditional desktop computer workstation and can tap in to a variety of devices, formats, and physical locations. Mobile devices, such as laptops, cellular phones, tablets, and smartphones, have been used to both deploy and access learning wherever a connection and enough bandwidth is available for several years. Similar to how the cell phone transformed the telephone dynamic from one of place (location of the hard wired phone) to person (location independent), mobile devices have created this same opportunity for learning. Learners can receive high quality content just in time to learn a skill or perform a task whether they are in a car, in a plane, on a ship, on foot, on the shop floor, or sitting on the living room sofa or back patio. The opportunity to learn and develop can now happen anytime and anywhere. Yet sometimes people still think first of the classroom as the primary place for learning. Instructional design professionals must not only become proficient in designing instruction for mobile devices, they must help change the paradigms customers may have regarding where, when, and how learning can happen.

While mobile devices for learning will continue to expand into the future, the next generation of ubiquitous computing involves wearable technologies, which is still relatively new from a widespread commercial standpoint and still emerging. The primary use of wearable technologies seems to be for entertainment, such as snowboarders wearing a GoPro camera, and everyday life applications, such as fitness tracking devices worn by athletes and health-conscious people. According to ABI Research, “Wearable computing devices are projected to explode in popularity over the next year and with a wave of new gadgets set to hit the consumer market, could soon become the norm for most people within five years.” ABI Research forecasts the wearable computing device market will grow to 485 million annual device shipments by 2018 (ABI Research, 2013).

Just as with mobile devices, the learning and educational uses of such technologies lagged other popular culture-oriented applications. Now, learning and instructional design practitioners are running to keep up with those who are outside of the profession and building learning-oriented games and applications. Will this be the case with wearable technologies as well? Will learning professionals fail to see opportunities to use these emerging technologies to enable learning and support improved performance or will they be at the forefront? Lipman (2014) suggests that “71 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds want wearable tech” so if that prediction is even partially accurate, the possibilities and potential are enormous (Lipman 2014). Imagine, for a moment, that learners had wearable devices able to monitor physical functions like heart rate, breathing, and mental and emotional processes in the brain. Perhaps this information could be sent to the facilitators as a way to know when learning was being maximized and when it was not occurring. What if such indicators were added to our evaluation frameworks to track physiological responses and changes in neural circuitry, or mental processing indicative of learning, or lack thereof? Imagine a facilitator's or instructional designer's evaluation being based on the measureable changes in brainwave and cognitive functioning. Knowing when learner brain waves are not fully engaged and taking action to heighten attention and awareness could be useful tools for facilitators. Recent advances have made the ability to monitor and map brain activity associated with various stimulations a reality. What might be the application of such technologies on learning?

Gamification

Gamification refers to the use of gaming concepts and techniques to achieve formal and informal learning and performance outcomes. It has been used widely by organizations for marketing and customer experience and retention purposes (Van Grove 2011). More recently, gamification applies to learning and education in organizations and that trend will probably continue. Gamification attempts to tap into people's interest in and desire for accomplishment, competition, mastery, knowledge or skill acquisition, power and status, and social interaction and camaraderie.

Simple gamification involves awarding points to learners for completing or making progress on a task or through gaining new knowledge or skill. In single-player gamification, rewards, points, or badges may be earned for achieving certain levels or thresholds or for task completion. In multiplayer scenarios, the diverging ideas of both collaboration (working with others) and competition (competing against other players) may be introduced, and one's status may be visible to others—often through a leader board, similar to a leader board in professional golf. Competition may have downsides and unintended consequences such as cheating, unhealthy competition, and fairness issues for those who may be less proficient or interested in this activity.

Various firms, initiatives, and organizations are attempting to make education, training, and organizational learning more engaging, interesting, and appealing to younger generations well versed in entertainment type gaming through the design and use of gamification. Bunchball is the name of an organization that specializes in gamification products and services (www.bunchball.com). Quest to Learn (Davidson 2009) is an example of gamification integrated by teachers and game and instructional designers into a public school system curriculum. Khan Academy (see www.khanacademy.org), launched in 2006, has grown in popularity as an educational tool that uses short educational videos on a variety of subjects for children and adults at no cost.

In 2014, TrainingIndustry.com published its “first annual list designed to help buy-side organizations in their searches for the right gamification training partners” (Training Industry 2014). According to the website, the criteria used in determining the Top 20 gamification companies included features and capabilities, company size and growth potential, quality and number of clients/users, geographic reach, and awards, recognition, and competitive differentiation.

Networked Learning through Social and Virtual Collaboration (Peer, Expert)

The roots of networked learning can be traced to the early theory of social learning (Bandura 1963), which Bandura proposed in the 1960s and advanced in the 1970s (Bandura 1971). Social learning suggests that learning has a social component and occurs through direct observation or instruction of others. There are internal cognitive processes happening as well to make sense of that which is being observed by the learner. Expanded to a work setting, social learning can be connectivism and it brings together learning and work experiences (Griffiths and Guile 2003). Today and into the future, connectivism is considered by some to be a learning theory for the digital age (Siemens 2005).

In organizations today, enabled by prolific technologies available in both the private and public domains, virtual collaboration has become more and more prevalent as a way of working and learning. It can occur across time zones and geographies, organizations, and hierarchical levels, formally and informally. Virtual collaboration often involves teams interacting, working, and learning together, but may also involve individuals who are not members of a team doing the same. Once more common in global organizations, remote working and virtual teaming has become more pervasive in many organizations, both global and domestic. Reaching out to seek help on a problem, supporting peers in other locations, and providing expertise to others can all occur efficiently on a massive scale through technology.

Looking into the future, this trend of networked learning and virtual collaboration will continue but will expand further beyond the walls of the organization. Imagine a future where customers, suppliers, partners, colleagues, and even competitors, regulators, and attorneys all engage each other in the learning process in productive and meaningful exchanges that mutually benefit multiple parties. What a world that would be, indeed!

A recent trend in the past 10 years that we expect to continue and to find its way from the university environment or academia into organizations is the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses, commonly called “MOOCs.” MOOCs are free online courses in which large numbers of participants can engage simultaneously from anywhere in the world. College and university professors, subject experts, and thought leaders typically partner with instructional design professionals, graphic/media specialists, technical experts, and others to create, organize, and post content such as videotaped lectures, course content, articles, presentations, syllabi, questions, and problems. So that it's not a static one-way learning process, many MOOCs also include elements that foster interaction and social learning—among learners, professors, and others (Lewin 2013).

MOOCs can be in the hype cycle described earlier with writer Dennis Yang wondering “Are We MOOC'd Out?” (Yang 2013). The range of topics and courses available is large and on the increase, some featuring world-class faculty from some of the most prestigious universities and institutions in the world, which bolster their credibility. Stanford University's Stanford Online, UPEx, edX, iversity, FutureLearn, and Khan Academy are all examples of nonprofit MOOCs whereas Coursera, OpenLearn, and Udacity are commercial providers. Both nonprofit and commercial providers typically have well-known universities associated with them.

In terms of the future, as more content is added to MOOCs, organizations will integrate this readily available courseware into their internal offerings, expanding access and bringing high quality learning to bear on internal individual and organizational development needs. Organizations will also replicate the concept of MOOCs within the walls of the organization. Especially in large, global organizations, some with thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, internal and external faculty can be sourced to create courses and content that is relevant and customized to the needs of each organization. Once created, it can be provided on demand to those who wish to participate or those who are asked to participate to build a skill or competence desired by the organization.

Mass Customization of Learning

The industrial revolution occurred nearly 150 to 200 years ago and at the time dramatically transformed the lives of people in the United States and throughout the world. One aspect of society influenced greatly by this era was education of children and training of the workforces used to fuel greater and greater levels of production and industry. Nearly two centuries have passed and we've been in the Information Age, also referred to as the Digital Age or Computer Age, for many decades with advances emerging more rapidly and more prolifically. As with the Industrial Era, the Information Age has affected countless aspects of daily life for people worldwide and in all walks of life.

Yet, many would argue that both education and organizational learning functions still cling to outdated practices designed to meet the needs that existed during the Industrial Era and have been laggards in leveraging the technology, information, and new learning modes successfully adopted in other arenas, from music and entertainment to shopping and mass media. In a not-so-subtle jab at one of the key principles of the Industrial Revolution, the notion of mass production, Schwahn and McGarvey (2012) consider the mass customization of learning “inevitable” in their book, titled Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning.

Mass customization of learning means that the learning needs of each individual are identified such that unique instruction is provided when, where, and how the person prefers. An excellent parallel can be seen in how iTunes revolutionized the music industry. Instead of the one-size-fits-all approach previously provided by record producers, where buyers needed to go to the music store and purchase full albums by their favorite artists, iTunes enables the music purchaser to select only what is of interest and can download it and listen to it from virtually anywhere. It turned the music world on its head and put the person with their mobile device, and his or her needs, at the center of it all. This provides a vision for what learning could be. Taking that a step further, not only will learning resources be available and targeted at the unique needs of the learner, learning will be served up based on the preferences, behaviors, and needs of the learner using predictive analytics and technologies similar to how Google and Amazon suggest purchases based on consumer searching and buying patterns. In this future, just-in-time and just enough learning will enable the right learning to be available in the right form, when it's needed, how it's preferred by the learner, and wherever the learner is at the point of need, interest, or desire.

Outsourcing Instructional Design

Outsourcing instructional design involves contracting with an external organization that specializes in all or various aspects of the ID process. It allows an organization to pay for services if and when needed, tap into deep expertise in ID, and manage expenses in variable rather than fixed ways when ID resources are full-time employees of the organization. A disadvantage of outsourcing is that the external firm may be less familiar with important cultural, political, or organizational dynamics or issues. This drawback can be reduced when a long-term relationship is established between the outsourced provider and the client organization. A mixed model is when there's a small internal core of instructional design capability, with the ability to tap into external resources as needed.

Often, the decision to outsource is based on cost reduction, but other factors may come into play, too, such as flexibility, other priorities, the organization's position regarding outsourcing, core competence, and others. Organizations that provide outsourced instructional design services range from independent consultants to large corporations with deep expertise, global reach, and state-of-the art technological capabilities. While broader learning services may be contracted for on a fixed contract basis, the nature of instructional design services lends itself to a variable or pay-as-you-go model that is more project oriented.

Global Sourcing of Content and Design

A trend in the outsourcing arena likely to continue into the future relates to global sourcing of instructional design services. Globalization, technology capabilities, labor costs, and growing ID expertise enables instructional design work to be performed offshore. India and countries like Malaysia are being tapped as low-cost sources for ID support and services. As capabilities are developed across the globe and borders become more porous, aided by technology advances, the sourcing, procurement, and access to instructional design resources will become more and more accessible.

Open-Sourced Design and Development

The term open source has referred to the practice in the software design and development domain in which computer programming code used in various software platforms and applications is provided to the public. As individuals with varied backgrounds and expertise access the codes, improvements are made. Open source decentralizes and democratizes the software development process, compared to a centralized model where ownership, protection, and access is tightly controlled by the owner and those who have restricted access.

Open source applied to learning is a practice that could easily find its way into the instructional design and content development arena. Similar to MOOCs, discussed earlier, in which university faculty are providing course material and free access to anyone, instructional design of content of all sorts could also be provided via the Internet. Imagine someone who requests support for an instructional design project on which they are working. Experts and practitioners could create and provide material and content and provide virtual accessibility. Instructional design experts could collaborate and contribute ideas and support to make such content instructionally sound and high quality. Depending on the purpose and needs being addressed, instructional designers may offer their services free, as is true with open source software. Or perhaps the party interested in the final product may offer payment or incentive to those who were involved in the design and development process.

Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues

In an open-source instructional design scenario, as with many traditional design projects, intellectual property ownership, copyright, quality, and validity become important and sometimes difficult to ensure. The more open ID processes become, the easier it may be for people to knowingly or unknowingly violate copyright issues, not properly cite sources, not seek permission to use, and not take the time and effort to validate and verify sources and ensure that the work being done is of the utmost quality and integrity. Safeguards must be established, awareness of issues must be raised, and actions must be taken so that high quality content is produced but in a way that is legally defensible and beyond reproach. As new ground is charted amid the onslaught of new knowledge creation, warp speed of change, and technology advances, expect that these issues will continue to grow in complexity and importance.

Rapid Deployment from Need to Solution

In an age of instant gratification, information access, and blazingly fast technologies, organizations and individuals expect quick answers to their problems or the goals they are trying to achieve. They not only grow impatient when there are delays, but the problems themselves may continue to morph, expand, and spawn other problems if not addressed expediently. A trend that will continue regarding instructional problems is the need for rapid design and development. Needs assessments must quickly detect, verify, and scope problems. Once design and development begins, it must happen with both speed and quality. Designing interventions rapidly does not mean haphazardly or without sound ID practices—high standards must be maintained, but they cannot take forever to achieve. Once designed, solutions must be deployed quickly and smoothly to ensure adoption and impact.

Advancements in instructional design software help to automate and reduce cycle times of the design and development process. Sophisticated delivery platforms such as virtual collaboration software designed for learning, high-fidelity video conferencing, and remote telepresence devices open up new avenues to achieve scale of solutions in less time. Whether directly developed for learning or not, these capabilities will continue to improve as new technologies emerge and existing ones become refined, both of which will enable more rapid development and deployment.

Another trend that will continue is improved quality of animation, video, and instructional design authoring capability. Advances from the motion picture, mobile applications, and video-gaming industries will lead to advances in the learning and development and ID professions. The ability to embed realistic, high-fidelity, multimedia experiences into a learning resources will be easier and more readily available. Instructional designers, with relatively low-cost equipment and authoring software tools, can create experiences that engage participants and accelerate learning.

Just as younger generation, or millennial, workers expect organizations to provide cutting-edge mobile and computing capability, the expectation that online learning will be on par in quality and experience with video and computer gaming will continue to grow. Organizations that fail to provide high-quality and highly relevant content insisted upon by learners will face engagement and perhaps even retention issues as astute learners seek such opportunities elsewhere.

Proliferation of Video-Based Learning

With the emergence of video sharing websites, such as YouTube, subsequently purchased by Google, the ability to both upload and access video-based content has become pervasive. A multitude of personal interest learning-oriented videos, from guitar instruction to cooking to gardening to home remodeling, are available along with a countless number of humorous, inspirational and even disgusting videos that have been posted by amateurs and professionals. In addition, numerous workplace or professional videos are also available on various subjects, such as leadership and management, project management, career development, and many others. MOOCs, mentioned earlier, often use videos as the primary delivery method, often surrounded by other content, resources, or tools.

While the capability and quality of video-based production continues to increase, and while costs simultaneously decrease, there will also continue to be a tolerance for video-based learning that is lower in quality. This is due to a surprising willingness to view, which may mean millions of views, so-called “viral” videos, compelling content that captures an audience regardless of video quality. If the material is of high interest, relevance, or engagement, viewers will overlook choppy, grainy, or inconsistent footage shot with a handheld device.

We anticipate an increase in the use of video-based learning in organizations, where short instructional, informational, or learning-oriented videos can be captured by anyone in organization and posted, perhaps externally on sites like YouTube or on internally hosted delivery platforms. As with YouTube-style videos, the quality of the footage will be less important than the content, and learners will access posted material just in time to gain awareness, acquire new knowledge, build a skill, or perform a task.

Informal Learning

Instructional design is typically thought of in terms of the creation of formal learning, but what role does ID play in informal learning? Informal learning is a growing area of focus among researchers and practitioners and it will continue to receive attention primarily due to its prevalence relative to formal learning. One way to think about what may be included in the informal learning arena is what happens outside of the classroom, online, or structured learning situation to help one acquire knowledge or improve performance professionally and personally. The graph in Figure 20.2 shows the relative magnitude of informal learning compared to formal learning in a study of time to performance (Moore 1998).

Doing a Google search to learn about a medical condition you may have is an example of informal learning. A conversation with a peer or coworker about a problem you're facing is another. Being asked to play the role of project leader on a new cross-functional initiative, volunteering to serve on a nonprofit board, learning to ski, and becoming a parent are other examples, and the list goes on. Even the conversation at the proverbial water cooler could represent informal learning. A common theme of many is that all of these examples represent learning through experiences and learning through others. Informal learning is often about learning through trial and error or trial and success. The notion of self-directed learning, lifelong learning, or being a continuous learner can be synonymous with engaging in informal learning.

The incredible amount of, and easy access to, information of all sorts through the Internet has expanded the ability of a self-directed learner to become proficient, and even an expert, on countless subjects. Powerful search engines return results that provide answers to questions, solutions to problems, and knowledge that a short time ago was limited to direct contact with experts or accessed only by reading a textbook or paper. For many, when they face a problem, their first response is to “Google it” or turn to many online sources such as Wikipedia or Ask.com. While questions of quality, accuracy, and currency of information found informally via the Internet must be questioned and scrutinized, it provides a just-in-time, accessible from anywhere knowledge base that the majority of people and employees turn to for learning.

With both the size of informal learning and the role it plays in actual performance, what role should ID professionals play? Should the focus of our craft be on the formal world of learning where the majority of organizational investments are made? There are several opportunities to add value in both arenas and play a role in bringing these worlds together. There will be significant opportunities for ID professionals to help their organizations to formalize informal learning so learning through experiences can be more structured, more purposeful, and more rapid, through ID and expertise being applied more creatively. Another opportunity is to blend informal learning into formal instructional design efforts. This is often done through instructional activities discussed previously, such as group discussions or activities, but there likely will exist many other ways to incorporate informal learning practices and create an even richer and impactful experience.

The Future Learner

One way to predict what the future of learning may hold is to study and anticipate the future learner. Millennials, often called Generation Y or the Millennial Generation, are those born between the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. Many are in their twenties and thirties and therefore of working age. Traits commonly ascribed to Millennials include achievement oriented, socially connected, optimistic, technology proficient, civic minded, and tolerant, and also impatient, self-centered, and risk averse. They have a strong desire for openness and transparency, recognition, challenge, career advancement, balance and flexibility, collaboration, and team working. What are the implications of these and other characteristics on the world of work and learning for preferences, styles, and tendencies? How can organizations create a unique value proposition based on what's more important to this generation as a way to attract, engage, develop, and retain those who will represent the workforce and senior leadership of organizations well into the future? At 80 million in number, they are formidable in size and organizations that don't embrace them and change may find themselves in a talent deficit.

What about the post-Millennials? They don't even have a name that has stuck. Possibilities include Generation Z, the Net Generation, the iGeneration, or the Digital Natives. One thing is certain, as the last potential name suggests, they will be the most technologically proficient generation yet, since literally from birth they have been surrounded by technologies not even imagined by preceding generations. This generation will have the highest comfort level with new innovations as they are introduced. But how will they best learn? What will be their predominant preferences and styles? What alterations to instructional design will be required to meet this next generation of learners where they are at and where they are heading? Will instructional design as we know it today even be relevant? As this newest generation, which does not yet have a defined end time horizon, continues to emerge, learning and ID professionals must closely monitor their habits, traits, likes, and dislikes because these will be the early signals of their expectations and preferences as they enter the workforce.

Major Advances in Neuroscience Research

For years now, it was believed that the brain's ability to learn began to deteriorate around the age of eighteen. Recent findings, however, have demonstrated that the brain remakes itself almost every day (Meacham 2015). This concept, knows as neuroplasticity, suggests that learners may well be “learning” far more, or far differently, than we are aware of as instructional designers. The billions of neurons that form the foundation of our brain's operation constantly change their structure based on experience and environmental factors.

Another major discovery in recent years is the fact that the brain and the body are not separate entities, but are interdependent, as are the concepts of logic and emotion. Damasio (1994), in his book Descartes' Error, makes the point that thinking and feeling cannot be separated, as Western philosophy, psychology, and medicine have often tried to do. Since emotion is as important to learning as thinking and logic, we need to consider ways to use emotion, particularly in gaining our learners' attention.

Another replicated finding is that, in spite of what younger generations might believe, the ability to “multitask” is a fallacy. Research demonstrates that we can only focus on one conscious task at a time; more than that, and accuracy and overall performance drops off dramatically.

In an attempt to represent the operation of the human brain, several models, most notably information processing models and those based on how a computer operates, have proven to be too limiting in their descriptions of how the brain functions. Based on modern neuroscience research, a parallel processing models appears to be the best fit; that is, the brain processes many items quickly and simultaneously, with memory being dynamic and ever-changing based on experience (Sousa 2011).

While these findings merely highlight the advancements made by neuroscience research, we can now correlate much of what we know about how the brain learns to the practice of designing instruction. The remainder of this section highlights several areas of brain research related to learning and memory and the implications for training and instructional design professionals.

Implications for instructional designers

Table 20.1 identifies some of the ISD practices that are suggested by what we're learning about brain functioning. It is not intended to be comprehensive and continuing research in the fields of neuroscience and learning will shed new light on the subject. Some of these practices are not new while others tend to refute long-held beliefs.

New findings are coming every day and the reader is encouraged to stay current with these advances.

Taylor (2006) provides an interesting synopsis of the impact of neuroscience research on ISD. Her findings are summarized here:

1. For learning to be successful, it must be meaningful. Particularly with new learning, the learner is searching for how this new learning relates to what he or she already knows or has already experienced. Content may be meaningful to the instructor, but, unless it is shown to be meaningful to the learner, it likely will not be retained over time.
2. Brain research appears to support the fundamental tenets of constructivism and experiential learning. Though these were theories in the past (e.g., Kolb's Experiential Learning theory), they seem to have been validated by today's neuroscience research. Experimentation suggests that learning is constructed in the mind of the learner and is enhanced when the learning is meaningful to the learner.
3. Different parts of the brain are used when exposed to veridical learning (getting the “right” answer to a question or activity) than when exposed to nonveridical learning (examining problems from more than one perspective and reflecting on the problem). Much training today focuses on veridical learning, but, since meaningful learning is constructed and retained over time, ISD must increase the use of nonveridical learning for the best long-term results.
4. New experiences are more likely to be transferred to long-term memory the more emotional the experience. Storytelling is a powerful way of eliciting emotion when introducing new learning.

The merger of instructional design and neuroscience is a marriage made in heaven! The more we discover about how the brain learns and remembers, the more likely it is that the field of instructional design will alter and adapt its methodologies to accommodate the emerging world of brain research.