This paper explores the benefits of framing the constructivist educational environment by developing an upper-level general education course where course content is negotiated and constructed by class participants. High impact learning practices used to involve students in the design of the course included: a negotiated syllabus, where students were involved in choosing the readings for various weeks; active journaling exercises where students engaged in different modes of learning to explore course concepts; formative assessment by collecting information on troublesome concepts at the end of each class session; online discussion as a community building tool outside of class time; and offering students different options for major course assignments. The paper concludes with the challenges and opportunities in designing and delivering a constructivist, highly negotiated course, as well as a review of the collected responses of students perception of the class experience.
