Documentation and Output Packets

The ability to effectively document your outer projects and inner processes is one of the key skills you will develop over the course of your Gaia University studies. Throughout your enrollment, you will be expected to present your documentation in a digital package we call an "output packet", at intervals of approximately eight weeks. After you complete each output packet, you will post it to your ePortfolio, where it will be viewed and reviewed by your peers and advisors. In our model, output packets are the core requirement – equivalent to 'coursework' in conventional programs – and are the basis for the evaluation of your work.

Output packets document two main areas of your work: -

The first is your progress in your projects. This answers questions such as - What approaches have you used? What outcomes have you achieved? What analysis have you done? What research has been useful?

The second is your learning journey. What have you learned and unlearned and through what processes are the critical questions here.

Recurrent, in-depth documentation serves as a barometer of measurable progress towards learning goals and project specifications and strongly supports the personal growth that arises through the conscious reflection and analysis of one’s learning process.

Although output packets are generally text based, you are invited to deliver your documentation in mixed media and/or multimedia formats. We actively encourage and assist you to further develop your technical and creative capacities as you proceed. Ultimately, the emphasis is less on the specific form your documentation takes and more on its potential to reveal new ways of thinking that can inform and inspire your future work, and the work of others.

The format/s and style in which you produce your output packets is limited only by your own creativity, but all output packets are built upon the same basic set of elements:

Output specification: A basic overview of the output packet and its connection to the learning intentions laid out in your learning design.

Project specification: An overall description of the project: Who is doing what for whom, where, how and why? The project goals and visions are included here.

Design report: This is the main part of the output packet. It includes in-depth documentation of research and action, a description of the design frameworks and methods you have used and reflections on what you have learned, your conclusions and analysis of next steps.

Outcomes: Evidence of your project's outcomes and effects in the world - an evaluation of your work.

Learning journal extracts: Examples of your 'everyday' learning documentation – your thoughts and reflections on your process.

Resource review: A briefly annotated list of resources you have used in your project and the creation of the output packet.

Digiphon: An explanation of the technical aspects of creating the output packet. What software did you use? What digital literacy was required? Did you find any resources particularly useful? Sharing this information contributes to the rapid growth of the entire Gaia U community.

Thoughtfully, artfully and holistically documenting your projects is an act of great service, not only to our community, but also to the greater world-change community. We see skillful documentation and online presentation as an essential means of networking and collaboration on a global scale. Through the documentation and sharing of your ideas, designs, experiments and outcomes, you transmit important information, open the possibility for receiving vital feedback, and create conditions for new alliances to be formed.

Associate Gabriel Vieira reflected on the question, 'Why do I write outputs?'...

"Because life is very complicated. In each moment, there are infinite things happening. Just in my body, there is more than I can pay attention to in any moment. Time does not progress linearly, it progresses in many directions at once, and it is the strange capacity of the human mind to organize all these emotions, occurrences, and infinite moments into a story in which one thing causes another. An output packet is an opportunity to use this capacity, an opportunity to look at your life and make a story. All the time, we are writing the story of our lives in our minds, and together we write the story of the planet. An output packet is an opportunity to stop, and to write the story that you want, the story that gives weight to the learnings of each day, and that makes them part of a beautiful story that moves us towards the world we want to live in. "