Is WGU lax when it comes to General Education courses ?

I got this idea from another thread, and thought that there are so many WGU students and alumnus here that it would make for a lively discussion. I read the original post and had to admit that there were a handful of GE classes that seemed a bit too easy (I'm on the BSIT track). Still, I have found the overall education delivered by WGU to be great. I don't regret making this choice. My understanding is that WGU made some major changes in 2014 in GE classes, so perhaps that was to allay any concerns regarding the above.

What do other WGUers think?

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Comments

olaHalo

Beats me didnt have to take any =D
But you find the IT related education delivered by WGU to be great? Why?
You could learn it all on your own for free or get the certs for much cheaper.

Im just doing it for the checkmark on my resume. A library card and an internet connection could learn you much more

JamesKurtovich

From what I've read in this forum, no. Intro to Physics and Integrated Natural Science sound like they're a handful and I've heard similar things about Humanities.

I've only started on one course (Intro to IT) and it's basically like reading from a text book and being quizzed on its contents.

rcsoar4fun

From what I have seen they are pretty easy, but they were at a B&M college too. Liberal arts majors need degrees too.

Here in an hour I take the Management exam, I hope I pass, I put in a solid weeks worth of study.

markulous

How difficult can Gen Ed classes really be? They were easy at my previous school too. I think the tests are adequate and despite finding them easy, I don't think they were TOO easy. There's only so much I want to know (and need to know) about Pop Art and Andy Warhol.

rcsoar4fun

I was in an engineering program at a pretty good university. A number of us took a sociology class. We would study by flipping through the chapter summaries in the back of the book on the class. We all passed.

Heero

markulous wrote: »

How difficult can Gen Ed classes really be? They were easy at my previous school too. I think the tests are adequate and despite finding them easy, I don't think they were TOO easy. There's only so much I want to know (and need to know) about Pop Art and Andy Warhol.

I went to a State university, but some of the 200 level gen eds were quite interesting and fairly difficult. A few of them had really good teachers that were really able to impart important information on me. So yeah, I could see WGU being "lax" in gen ed. But if you are going to WGU, you probably aren't doing it for the high quality gen ed courses.

srabiee

Some of the math courses were quite challenging. Algebra was always a strong suit of mine, but I could easily see this material causing a lot of problems for some people. Physics and biology were challenging as well. I guess it depends on your own strengths and weaknesses. WGU certainly isn't a diploma mill by any means.

rcsoar4fun

Certain courses are a little hard to pick up just by reading about it, which is what would make something like algebra hard to self learn.

JAM8588

It seemed to me as if you were invited to get as much as you wanted out of the course, as long as you picked up enough to pass. Which is probably what would happen at a B&M school. The two differences are: at a B&M, your actual grade matters, and by attending class you get the benefit of class discussion, where you might pick up on nuances of something you wouldn't get from reading.

I did not have to take many of these classes at WGU, but I did feel a tiny bit guilty about 51%=PASS=B. I don't know if the other schools work the same, as they have less industry controlled tests to pass, but teacher or a nurse getting by on 51%? Couldn't happen at a B&M.

srabiee

That 51% score is relative though. They can adjust the pass/fail percentage by making the exam easier or more difficult.

ratbuddy

JAM8588 wrote: »

getting by on 51%? Couldn't happen at a B&M.

Ever heard of grading on a curve? Happens all the time.