Designing Instruction is Like...

Designing instruction is like medical treatment. The first thing that doctors do is get a thorough analysis of the illness (problem), patient (audience), and situation (environment or context). This is done by talking to the patient about the symptoms (interview/survey are kind of a needs analysis), examining the patient (task and need analysis), and running tests (task and needs analysis). If the problem is particularly complicated or mysterious, the doctor may confer with experts, do online research, or confer with his or her peers (this is part of the goal development and the beginnings of the design phase). Then the doctors work with the patient to treat them (design and evaluation), and the treatment is followed by one to several checkups in the following days or weeks (evaluation). Another important part of this simile is the idea that this system does not work in a vacuum. There are many factors such as hospital administration and policies (state and local boards of education) that have a profound affect on each step of the process above. Also, just like in designing instruction, medical processes are also influenced by financial concerns such as insurance (school or business funding for instruction). These factors can change the process in beneficial and detrimental cases, or they could have no effect at all. Also important to remember is that there is no set process when it comes to medical procedures, even if the illnesses (problems) are the same. This is simply because no patient (audience member or student) is the same, so each needs to have their own individualized treatment. For example, while one patient may be cured with antibiotics, another may require a completely different treatment due to allergies to antibiotics. Some may have other conditions which must be remedied before treatment for the new illness can begin, just as some students need help from special services to help them catch back up to where learners at their current age level are at.