Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

jmasterj206 wrote: »

My understanding is that some of the graders were overseas and I wonder if that was causing problems. That would be my biggest complaint about WGU is Taskstream grading. I don't have any more TS classes left, but I got tired of the cryptic revision requests and things that they just missed. One example was that I had two parts to a task. It was on 2 pages they didn't look at the second page and sent it back for revisions setting me back 10 days total. I get the feeling that mentors aren't too fond of TS either.

I was assured that the graders were not outsourced. Now, they might possibly be foreign, but would still be within the US.

I can't imagine any school that's regionally accredited would allow itself to outsource grading to folks in another country.

erpadmin wrote: »

I was assured that the graders were not outsourced. Now, they might possibly be foreign, but would still be within the US.

I can't imagine any school that's regionally accredited would allow itself to outsource grading to folks in another country.

I'm certain they are not. There was an article from Times that talked about growing number of graders at WGU and where they are from. I cannot seem to find it, but it never mentioned overseas.

snokerpoker

Can anyone link me to the sample capstone projects? I had a link a while ago but for some reason can't find them now...... I tried searching the cos and the community page but have had no luck.

EDIT: I found the sample capstone projects.

On another note, I don't understand all the taskstream grading bashing. Each time I turned in a paper and it needed revisions, the grader listed the specific areas I needed to change and why. As soon as I made the revisions they requested, it passed. I would suggest filling in the "notes" section when submitting into taskstream. I always made a point to fill in the "notes" section with something along the lines of "Please be as specific as possible when grading". I have had good luck with this and it might help as it seems some of you are getting frustrated.

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Guys and gals,

I have a confession to make here. I just took my very first pre-assessment for ORC1 at WGU yesterday, and I intentionally failed miserably after giving the first four questions a try then abruptly quit. I panicked. I was only curious about the difficulty of the test. I read the entire chapter 4 before starting, and I have to say the book is a complete BS, because I felt it's not applicable to us IT students. I told my mentor that it's pretty much a liberal arts course, and it seems to gear toward psychology or sociology students. The pre-assessment seems to have questions that came straight from the book.

Now I want to know how the heck did you guys manage to pass this class by just taking the pre-assessment??? I just finished my 12-week internship at a Fortune 500 company. We work in the financial industry. I thought that experience enough would help me with the class, but it probably didn't. What really caught me off-guard is the unfamiliar terminology that I would have to learn from the book. In my opinion, the questions was sophistically structured with wordings that startled me. Man, I would hate to read 10 chapters with approximately 30 pages each on the screen for the next few days just to pick up 4 CUs that you guys didn't have to work for. Shecky was probably right. Some of you guys must be genius.

Now I had no idea I had to get my second pre-assessment attempt approved before I can take it. I hope this three-time limit is just a soft requirement, but can anyone here refute this?

Here's "the secret" but keep in mind that I've been working in both the public and private sector for about 15 years.....

Much of what I found on ORC1 was "common sense" If I didn't know it, I guessed. I did this on the preassessment and assessment. If I wanted to know what I was being asked on the preassessment, I noted it down and then googled it later.

It also helped that I took TPV1 and LET1 before ORC1.

So in essense, work experience, deduction and reasoning will get you to pass ORC1/MGC1 and CLC1 if you need to. (CLC1 though.....can be a bit tricky, but certainly passable)

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

I don't even want the gift cards to begin with. Needs and wants are not the same. I just want one of the free apparels from their giftshopm (preferably a hoodie).

My $35 WGU Zipper hoodie, which I just bought before I posted this, cost me $18.95. ($10+ $8.95 shipping)

When I was trying to track down my TWA1 course mentor, I did not like the fact that it was taking three days to hear from him. I had contacted Student Services about it and I stressed that I wasn't trying to complain, but was legitimately worried about him, as I found it odd that I would wait more than two days to hear from anyone, as opposed to the four hours.

Student Services understood where I was coming from, and I guess because I wasn't trying to sound like a douchebag, gave me a $25 gift certificate. I kind of felt bad about taking it, but like you, I also wanted a WGU hoodie. While a "free" hoodie would have been preferable, I couldn't see what other WGU gear I would have "rocked" [or whatever the kids are saying these days]. I don't wear hats, I'm not paying for a t-shirt, and I have enough WGU office swag. The only thing that made sense was the hoodie.

The hoodie must be real popular, because it was on backorder for weeks. The nice gal who works for their swag shop was kind enough to send me an email when the hoodies were available. So I got this one, which I'll be wearing when I meet up with N2L and themagicone for those beers and drinks (N2L btw, I do like gin...but I'm a bit of a Bombay Sapphire snob.....LMAO.) I applied the $25 gift certificate toward it and paid off the rest.

Discounted is better than full price, though not as good as free...lmao.

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I'm certain they are not. There was an article from Times that talked about growing number of graders at WGU and where they are from. I cannot seem to find it, but it never mentioned overseas.

I remember reading elsewhere that Taskstream utilizes graders outside the country, but they're primarily Americans living abroad-- which would make sense given some of the strange hours at which I've received evaluations.

As long as these graders have degrees from recognized, legitimate educational institutions I have no problem with them-- as long as they do their job.

I'm so glad I didn't rush my paper...even though I could have had it done sooner.

4.00/4.00!!!

Score: 4.00 (out of 4)

Between the unsolicited job interview, plus this....I'm happy as f--k!! No other assignment has made me well up with tears of pride.

Experience, truly, will always win...the taskstream comment validates that!! Seriously it sounds corny or whatever but I'm so proud of the work I put into this paper....better than LAT1 and LET1 combined.....this paper matters because it validates my experience as an ERP Admin and overall as an IT professional. The amount of research that I had to tie in made it all so very worth it.

I did want to put the comment in this post, but I don't have permission to do that....but suffice it say, I'm choked up right now. I'm literally crying right now....with pride and joy behind my tears. I can only imagine this will be a precursor to when I'm done with my final class (70-680).

Remember folks...any paper you hand in before the 15th of any month means you'll get your paper back today OR within three days. After the 15th, you're waiting a long time.

Well off to Capstone!!

erpadmin wrote: »

My $35 WGU Zipper hoodie, which I just bought before I posted this, cost me $18.95. ($10+ $8.95 shipping)

When I was trying to track down my TWA1 course mentor, I did not like the fact that it was taking three days to hear from him. I had contacted Student Services about it and I stressed that I wasn't trying to complain, but was legitimately worried about him, as I found it odd that I would wait more than two days to hear from anyone, as opposed to the four hours.

Student Services understood where I was coming from, and I guess because I wasn't trying to sound like a douchebag, gave me a $25 gift certificate. I kind of felt bad about taking it, but like you, I also wanted a WGU hoodie. While a "free" hoodie would have been preferable, I couldn't see what other WGU gear I would have "rocked" [or whatever the kids are saying these days]. I don't wear hats, I'm not paying for a t-shirt, and I have enough WGU office swag. The only thing that made sense was the hoodie.

The hoodie must be real popular, because it was on backorder for weeks. The nice gal who works for their swag shop was kind enough to send me an email when the hoodies were available. So I got this one, which I'll be wearing when I meet up with N2L and themagicone for those beers and drinks (N2L btw, I do like gin...but I'm a bit of a Bombay Sapphire snob.....LMAO.) I applied the $25 gift certificate toward it and paid off the rest.

Discounted is better than full price, though not as good as free...lmao.

Do have to buy one size bigger, or smaller? I've thought about buying a hoodie, but the size thing always makes me nervous buying online.

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Do have to buy one size bigger, or smaller? I've thought about buying a hoodie, but the size thing always makes me nervous buying online.

I'm 5'10", and 240. Because of my broad shoulders and a bit of excess weight, I always buy XL.

2XL would have probably engulfed me.

To be on the safeside, you can't do any wrong going XL; even if you're on the slim side. Though if you typically buy medium or small...perhaps going the next size up is preferable.

Nobylspoon

I passed GAC1 earlier this week and just submitted my Task 1 paper for HHT1. Since HHT1 is my last course on my AAV and I still have almost 3 full months, I had him go ahead and add BOV1.

Hopefully I can complete HHT1 and BOV1 and still have enough time to knock out MGC1 and ORC1 (which sound like I can finish quickly).

Nobylspoon wrote: »

I passed GAC1 earlier this week and just submitted my Task 1 paper for HHT1. Since HHT1 is my last course on my AAV and I still have almost 3 full months, I had him go ahead and add BOV1.

Hopefully I can complete HHT1 and BOV1 and still have enough time to knock out MGC1 and ORC1 (which sound like I can finish quickly).

Was the GAC1 anything like the pre-assesment? I just finished HHT1. My only gripe with the paper was how little information the graders gave me. I would get one explanations for what I did wrong. Not very informative.

After AIV1 is finished, I will be down to twelve classes

Nobylspoon

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Was the GAC1 anything like the pre-assesment? I just finished HHT1. My only gripe with the paper was how little information the graders gave me. I would get one explanations for what I did wrong. Not very informative.

After AIV1 is finished, I will be down to twelve classes

When I submitted Task 1 for HHT1, I thought I had 2 more tasks to complete, I didn't realize the COS just broke down Task 1 into 3 parts. If it is excepted then I am finished with that course

GAC1 is a lot like the preassessment. I highly recommend the "skills checks" on the Thinking Mathematically site. I didn't read any of the chapters, I just drilled those. When you miss one, there is an option to be walked through it step by step to see where you went wrong.

I did the 3 skills checks a total of 10 times each. (The 4th one is like a preassessment, it has 20 questions from the same question bank as the other 3 skills checks. I did that 2 or 3 times).

I then took the official pre-assessment a second time since the question format is a bit different than the skills checks, it more closely reflects the actual exam.

My pre-assessments were about 85-87% and I scored an 89% on the exam. I missed the same thing on the exam that I missed on pre-assessments because I never bothered looking it up, lol.

jmasterj206

Welp, I failed my first certification test ever. 70-642. What a nightmare. The testing software locked up twice and most of the material wasn't covered in depth enough in either labsim or MS press. Time to spend time at TechNet I guess. For me this thing was worse than the 70-680. Maybe I just got a tough draw of questions.

demonfurbie

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Welp, I failed my first certification test ever. 70-642. What a nightmare. The testing software locked up twice and most of the material wasn't covered in depth enough in either labsim or MS press. Time to spend time at TechNet I guess. For me this thing was worse than the 70-680. Maybe I just got a tough draw of questions.

i failed as well today by 1 fdamn question

i did see a few questions that i didnt see anything about in labsim or ms press or ucertify

pm me your info maybe we can get together and work it out

sheckler

erpadmin wrote: »

I'm so glad I didn't rush my paper...even though I could have had it done sooner.

4.00/4.00!!!

Nice job. I thought tech writing was just the proposal thing before the big capstone paper. If you're this excited now I can't wait to see after you get the capstone grade.

For ORC1 re-takers:

The recommended textbook should have chapter quizzes at the publisher's website. I'd recommend taking those and going over the answers with a fine-toothed comb. Re-take the chapter quizzes until you can get at least 70% on each chapter. Anything you don't know well, consider skimming the chapter AND scouring the web. The scouring the web part is where you might pick up on things that WGU emphasizes but the book doesn't.

never2late

erpadmin wrote: »

A little belated, but congratulations!! I definitely have no problems picking up the first round....LOL! In the beginning, I really tried to get this paper done ASAP, but my schedule made that endeavor impossible.

I just handed in the Tech Writing paper this morning. Between some
named Irene, getting ready for the beginning of the semester at work, working on two projects, running around, plus volunteer work, I was amazed I had gotten the paper done at all. The Gantt chart was nonsense, but was very easy to do.

(N2L btw, I do like gin...but I'm a bit of a Bombay Sapphire snob.....LMAO.)

Bombay Sapphire is my choice as well. Makes the best Martinis.

Irene threw a few kinks in my plans. Lost a fence and siding here in Va Beach, but others had worse. Our little old cottage in Outer Banks got slammed with 4 feet of water. Lost everything inside and maybe some structural damage. Thank goodness for flood insurance

Congrats on the Tech paper. The capstone will flow like water if you do well on the tech writing.

hiddenknight821

Now the resource fee is on the rise! From $45 to $145. I wonder who's unhappy with this change. I'm not too concerned with it at all.

themagicone

Congrats ERP. Now get those other classes done! N2l, sorry I didn't forget about the thing I said I'd send - I'll get it out tomorrow. And for drinks... Grey goose and lemonade. That, or 1,2 may be 3 bottles of Chianti Classico.

bmtuser

Whew! This semester is flying by! I started 7/1 and I just completed 14 CUs. It seems like my mentor wants me to get all the objective assessments out of the way. I have 3 objective assessments left which should take another month or so to finish. I was wondering how much longer did it take you guys to finish the performance assessments compared to the objective assessments. I haven't submitted anything in Taskstream yet so I am unfamiliar with expected wait time in between grading assignments. Thanks guys for all your posts, it really helped me get motivated to finish my degree with WGU.

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Now the resource fee is on the rise! From $45 to $145. I wonder who's unhappy with this change. I'm not too concerned with it at all.

Ummm.....

Even though this most likely won't effect me, even if it did, I think I could scrounge up the other pennies if I had to. (Because really....that's what it amounts to...that's keepin' it real.)

For what students are getting at WGU, I don't think that's unreasonable at all. WGU tuition will STILL be cheaper than any school in NJ. This is what I would call a non-issue.

bmtuser wrote: »

Whew! This semester is flying by! I started 7/1 and I just completed 14 CUs. It seems like my mentor wants me to get all the objective assessments out of the way. I have 3 objective assessments left which should take another month or so to finish. I was wondering how much longer did it take you guys to finish the performance assessments compared to the objective assessments. I haven't submitted anything in Taskstream yet so I am unfamiliar with expected wait time in between grading assignments. Thanks guys for all your posts, it really helped me get motivated to finish my degree with WGU.

I'm more comfortable with performance assessments than I am with exams. I would rather get rid of the papers first...in the case of math, that was more true. If it weren't for the preparation I had to do for QLT1, QLC1 would have been more difficult. It is worth noting though that I have never had to retake a WGU objective assessment. My only "fail" has been 73-640 and that was a MS Cert...not a WGU exam. CLC1 was a 71% pass....cut score was 70%. I pulled a Hail Mary pass for CLC1, ORC1 and MGC1 though....ORC1 and MGC1 was more respectable. QLC1 was respectable as well.

My weekends and nights have been extremely busy as of late. Otherwise, I'd have had TWA1 done weeks ago. What helped me out with that was I worked on each section one at a time. Then spent extra time tying it all together.

Keep in mind that anything before the 15th you hand in to Taskstream will get grader more quickly than if you do it after the 15th. A whole lot of people are getting closer to graduating...having said that, when you do hand stuff to TS, work on something else and keep your mind off of what you sent. You will want to check TS every 5 seconds. However, when you get closer to the end game, you will care less and less because it becomes routine.

erpadmin wrote: »

I'm more comfortable with performance assessments than I am with exams.

I'm the opposite-- I like to learn something and spit it out for an exam, then move on. Not that I mind writing-- writing's cool-- but writing under pressure and writing about things I may or may not be passionate at during a particular time period bugs me. Similar deal with the programming courses-- I'm glad to have learned some Java, but it's taking me forever to slog through all the tasks.

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

. . .I was only curious about the difficulty of the test.

Better to have stuck your toes in the water than not.

. . .I have to say the book is a complete BS, because I felt it's not applicable to us IT students. I told my mentor that it's pretty much a liberal arts course, and it seems to gear toward psychology or sociology students.

WGU's IT programs are largely focused on helping people advance in their careers, and they're aware that a significant portion of their student population already has significant work experience. With that background, many IT folks could use some additional Org Behavior training.

That, and too many geeks just don't understand normal people.

And yes, there's some soft skills/liberal arts/business admin thrown into it as well.

Now I want to know how the heck did you guys manage to pass this class by just taking the pre-assessment???. . . I thought that experience enough would help me with the class, but it probably didn't. . .

You probably need at least 3-5 years background in an environment of 300+ employees to have a grasp of this material without having studied it. Don't worry-- there are other folks like you who haven't been in that kind of situation yet.

Which reminds me of something I tell my colleagues-- it takes 2-3 years to really understand a company you work for, and by then you usually know things you'd rather you didn't.

Rappeller

Finished CLC1 finally. 1st test was a 69% failure, 2nd one with 2 hours of studying was an 89%. My head just wasn't in the game the first time. Now onto A+. Due to me getting out of the guard next year and needing a new job, my mentor is going to help me get as many certifications out of the way so I can make my resume look better.