As a constructivist educator, it is my responsibility to not only create a learning environment where the learners have choice, ownership, voice, and agency over their learning; it is also my responsibility to guide them through their personal development journey and help them take ownership of their learning (Harapnuik, 2016).

To develop a course or unit, educators must carefully evaluate their learning environments and situational factors before creating significant learning goals and using backward design. It is about more than collecting the dots; we cannot provide students with merely content when we should focus on connecting the dots, allowing our learners to connect with their learning (Godin, 2012). After this evaluation, the next step is determining the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). This goal focuses more on who the students will be or become as a result of the course/unit rather than just focusing on what they will be able to do. Finally, the alignment of learning outcomes, learning activities, and learning assessments should be in foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension/caring, and learning how to learn for significant learning (Fink,2003).  

Harapnuik (2016) refers to the 3 Column table as the bigger picture or map that will guide the learners to their learning destination (BHAG) and learning outcomes as landmarks they are encouraged to seek/achieve during their learning journey. He also recommends that the learning activities should be well designed by focusing on active learning, authentic projects, and other learning processes that still address the bigger picture and encourage ownership of the learning. However, there are times when some step-by-step instructions/activities are necessary to scaffold a learner and to get them to the point in the journey where they take back control of the learning process.