Designing instruction is like fishing ... GO FISH!

In thinking of an analogy, I started reflected on the process of instructional design. The process of identifying building blocks that will provide a foundation for accomplishing the expected outcome for the intended audience. This bring me too, designing instruction is like fishing. Growing up, I never went fishing much, so I use to watch Fishing with Bill Dance. To compare designing instruction to fishing, I will start with the preparation for fishing. You certainly cannot hop in a boat, put it in the middle of some water and expect a fish to jump in. The preparation for fishing like designing instruction takes careful planning. Some aspects of planning for fishing include: knowing what you need, where are you going to fish at, and what kind of fish do you want to catch. In designing instructions these aspects can be applied to planning such as what to do you need for instruction, where are you going to facilitate instruction, and who is your target audience. Once a plan of action has been devised for fishing or designing instruction the only way to know if the plan will accomplish the expected outcome is to simulate the plan of action. When Bill Dance would go out on his fishing trips, he would take his supplies and begin to set up the rod, reel, tackle, and bait. Depending on the target fish, Bill would determine the bait accordingly. For example, if he wanted to catch a large or small mouth bass, he would not use shrimp. If in freshwater, shrimp would certainly be bad bait for catching a large or small mouth bass, which would lead to not reaching your expected outcome - catching a small or large mouth bass. This is similar to designing instruction, if the instruction is designed for elementary students, then integrating strategies for college students would lead to not reaching the expected outcome. It is vital to know the target audience in either fishing or designing instruction. With any plan of action whether fishing or designing instruction it is important to evaluate to determine the level of success. After catching numerous fish, Bill would evaluate his success by measuring the size of the fish. As with designing instruction, the process requires evaluation of success according to the measures given from a formative, summative, or learner evaluation. The next time you think of designing instruction think about going fishing or should I say, “GO FISH!”