Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

This thread is intended for students to write about their experiences at Western Governors University.

Please keep it civil, and do not spend your time bashing the school, and its policies. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you have a problem you need to take it up with your professor or mentor. Please no Flaming on this thread.

You can ask for help with a referral (used to avoid paying the application fee) on the following thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/55634-wgu-refer-friend-thread-those-seeking-referral.html

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Psoasman

Jack2 wrote: »

It would be cool if they would do one in San Francisco!!! Since California has the largest percentage of WGU students. I am part of the commitee arranging graduation for the University I work at and we are having it at the Masonic Auditorium on Nob Hill In San Francisco this year. We are outgrowing our campus facilities. I think it would be a good selection for WGU also... Hint Hint...

I've heard they may hold graduations in the Seattle area in the future.

Lemonade727

Just wanted to give a big thanks to themagicone and sheckler for taking time out of their days to help me through Task 1 of KET1. Just a few tweaks and heavy commenting and it's off to TaskStream.

petedude

Psoasman wrote: »

I've heard they may hold graduations in the Seattle area in the future.

My work has branches in Salt Lake, and I have relatives in Seattle. Either of those would do if I decided to walk.

San Francisco's pretty cool, but that would be almost TOO West and a little too much mischief available (I can see students rolling into graduation late). Traffic's horrible there as well. One of the surrounding area cities instead, maybe?

Lemonade727

Just submitted Task 2 for KET1, hopefully there's no particular revisions or anything that need to be done on this or Task 1 since they work and complete everything they're supposed to (and even the way they want you to even though other ways might have been easier).

I started looking through Taskstream for the requirements for KFT1 and have a few questions if others might know. Mainly for Tasks 2 and 3, do they actually plan on contacting the attendees that fill out the reviews to go over that? I know others have mentioned just writing the reviews on their own since they don't have people with OO backgrounds/knowledge to present the tasks to, but if they do want to actually get in touch with the people I would be using a couple of people from work but I don't feel comfortable providing their contact information and don't think they would want to hand out their personal phone numbers or get contacted at work regarding this. I would much rather fill out those fields with aliases as well as fake numbers but if it's required I'll have to look around for some people that would agree to being called regarding this.

sheckler

No, they don't actually verify that stuff, just fill it in with whatever you want. As long as the content for the tasks is good, you're fine.

petedude

sheckler wrote: »

No, they don't actually verify that stuff, just fill it in with whatever you want. As long as the content for the tasks is good, you're fine.

It's a huge and unfortunate loophole, and it's a shame there are students who are willing to take advantage of it.

Better that WGU ask for the WGU E-mail addresses of students so they can verify.

TomAtkins

ow do their normal tests work? For example their Geography test which says "Proctored, computer based objective exam"

Does that mean you have to goto a center some where that has the WGU tests? If so am I able to see where those are at so I know if I have one close to me.

Or is it an online test?

themagicone

You can go to almost anywhere that has a computer w/ internet that offers proctoring for WGU tests. My choice was a sylvan learning center, but library's proctor test, some colleges will, etc. When you go to schedule the test they will give you a list of places set up in your area. If one isn't listed but you think would work you can have them add it.

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

My work has branches in Salt Lake, and I have relatives in Seattle. Either of those would do if I decided to walk.

San Francisco's pretty cool, but that would be almost TOO West and a little too much mischief available (I can see students rolling into graduation late). Traffic's horrible there as well. One of the surrounding area cities instead, maybe?

You won't be able to do Seattle; the commencements at WGU-[insert state here] are only for those students who live in those states. Otherwise, I'd have considered driving to Indy. (Only 12 hours...

)

cvuong1984

Hello Fellow WGU Students,

Anyone currently or has taken QLT1 recently?

Could anyone that has taken QLT1 send me the Task1-5 questions/problems? Just the questions not the answers.
Looking to get a head start with out enrolling into that class yet.

Thanks Ahead of time.

cvuong1984

TomAtkins wrote: »

ow do their normal tests work? For example their Geography test which says "Proctored, computer based objective exam"

Does that mean you have to goto a center some where that has the WGU tests? If so am I able to see where those are at so I know if I have one close to me.

Or is it an online test?

WGU also has a service with a company (the name slips my mind)
But they send you a Web Cam, which you need to position to view your face/shoulders and desk surface.
The software locks down you pc so you can only use the testing platform.

Someone will be monitoring you through the webcam.

Or to can do what themagicone said. But seriously the webcam protoctoring is pretty good, dont **** and you wont have a problem.

cvuong1984

sheckler wrote: »

No, they don't actually verify that stuff, just fill it in with whatever you want. As long as the content for the tasks is good, you're fine.

Wow...what task evaluators have you gotten?? Must be very lazy.

I just turned in a 18 page INT1 Task3, and had it sent back, because I had qualitative data vs quantitative.
I admit I was rushing through it, the content was as you said "good". However they read mine and sent it back.

But then again, I would rather they correct my mistake then let me fly. I want my degree but I want to learn in the process.
Not buy my degree.

And if there are taskstream evaluators like that, part of me wish I get them, yet part of me thinks they should be fired.

petedude

cvuong1984 wrote: »

And if there are taskstream evaluators like that, part of me wish I get them, yet part of me thinks they should be fired.

I agree with the sentiment, but there are appropriate times for the bad as well as the good evaluators to pop up, trust me.

NOLAJ

WOW LabSim has underwent a serious makeover.

hiddenknight821

NOLAJ wrote: »

WOW LabSim has underwent a serious makeover.

I just checked it out, and it looks nice, but I don't agree with the color choice. It would be better to leave the background black, so that we can read it in dim room. I won't be surprised if it gives anyone eyesores.

sheckler

cvuong1984 wrote: »

Wow...what task evaluators have you gotten?? Must be very lazy.

I just turned in a 18 page INT1 Task3, and had it sent back, because I had qualitative data vs quantitative.
I admit I was rushing through it, the content was as you said "good". However they read mine and sent it back.

But then again, I would rather they correct my mistake then let me fly. I want my degree but I want to learn in the process.
Not buy my degree.

And if there are taskstream evaluators like that, part of me wish I get them, yet part of me thinks they should be fired.

In this specific task you have to give a presentation to 2 people. I was saying they don't actually call all these people to verify you actually did it. Probably because there's a lot of students and those would be some awkward phone calls.

Lemonade727

cvuong1984 wrote: »

Wow...what task evaluators have you gotten?? Must be very lazy.

I just turned in a 18 page INT1 Task3, and had it sent back, because I had qualitative data vs quantitative.
I admit I was rushing through it, the content was as you said "good". However they read mine and sent it back.

But then again, I would rather they correct my mistake then let me fly. I want my degree but I want to learn in the process.
Not buy my degree.

And if there are taskstream evaluators like that, part of me wish I get them, yet part of me thinks they should be fired.

I have had plenty of work sent back to me requiring revisions as well, even over the most minuscule details because of how picky they were on the rubric requirements. However the point of me asking for this particular task is because I am going to be presenting to 2 coworkers since they need to be people with OO experience. I just don't want them getting random phone calls from TaskStream evaluators regarding the presentations, I'm already thankful enough they're taking a few moments out of their lunch breaks to allow me to make the presentations to them, but I definitely don't feel like listing their work numbers and there is no way I'm going to ask them for their personal numbers.

I know it may not seem like that big of a deal to some, but it just makes me feel like it's not my place to put that extra burden on them.

erpadmin

cvuong1984 wrote: »

Wow...what task evaluators have you gotten?? Must be very lazy.

I just turned in a 18 page INT1 Task3, and had it sent back, because I had qualitative data vs quantitative.
I admit I was rushing through it, the content was as you said "good". However they read mine and sent it back.

But then again, I would rather they correct my mistake then let me fly. I want my degree but I want to learn in the process.
Not buy my degree.

And if there are taskstream evaluators like that, part of me wish I get them, yet part of me thinks they should be fired.

I have some insight on this, as I spoke to one of the student mentors about it in Atlanta...

The taskstream evaluators aren't supposed to give insight--the course mentors are, and even then it has to be initiated by the student (this was already known to me though...as I have first-hand knowledge of that, and for INT1 at that...)

You hand something in, it gets put through their rubric, something doesn't jive and then they send it back to you requiring revisions. Then you are supposed to contact a course mentor about it IF you can't figure it out on your own (sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't.) In the cases where I couldn't, that's when I contacted a course mentor. I had to do that for both QLT1 AND INT1. INT1 was a bit more of a discussion, but QLT1 was about five minutes because I could not get over one easy part of it...once she explained to me what I had to do, QLT1 was as good as done. But buttom-line, taskstream evaluators aren't supposed to teach...just grade.

However, having said that, I think we can all agree that sometimes, evaluators aren't always consistent. Sometimes you might get someone who just let things fly, and others who are too stubborn and will ding you over something stupid (on their part). This was a very valid complaint I heard from fellow graduates...

petedude

sheckler wrote: »

In this specific task you have to give a presentation to 2 people. I was saying they don't actually call all these people to verify you actually did it. Probably because there's a lot of students and those would be some awkward phone calls.

I'm not sure I'd want Taskstream evaluators calling people for that-- there are plenty of administrative staffers @ WGU who could do that kind of thing if asked. I think they should be requesting WGU E-mail addresses, and restricting the attendees to WGU students.

To be fair, the whole Task 3 bit is almost an oxymoron for WGU-- you're supposed to do everything independently, but yet they want you to get some group work in for part of this course. I think it's asking for odd issues to crop up from the get-go. Not that a little group work is a bad idea, but it struck me as an odd place to do it.

Lemonade727

KET1 officially done, just got the notifications back from TaskStream. Big thanks again to sheckler and themagicone for the help.

calee63

Applied for the MSISA over a week ago and hadn't heard a thing from my enrollment counselor. After reading through some of the posts here, I ended up emailing and got a call almost immediately from another enrollment counselor. The ball is rolling now and looks like I'll be in by April. She was going to try for March but I'm using VA benefits so we pushed it back just in case we run into problems with that.

I haven't noticed many people here in the same program which is a real shame because I'm sure I'm going to need some help every now and then. I'll be sure to remain active if any other future people have questions that I could possibly answer. Also, I'm thinking of switching over to the new Network Management degree when it opens up so I'll keep you all posted.

Psoasman

calee63 wrote: »

Applied for the MSISA over a week ago and hadn't heard a thing from my enrollment counselor. After reading through some of the posts here, I ended up emailing and got a call almost immediately from another enrollment counselor. The ball is rolling now and looks like I'll be in by April. She was going to try for March but I'm using VA benefits so we pushed it back just in case we run into problems with that.

I haven't noticed many people here in the same program which is a real shame because I'm sure I'm going to need some help every now and then. I'll be sure to remain active if any other future people have questions that I could possibly answer. Also, I'm thinking of switching over to the new Network Management degree when it opens up so I'll keep you all posted.

This thread might help.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/71770-wgu-msia-jft2-course.html

calee63

Psoasman wrote: »

This thread might help.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/71770-wgu-msia-jft2-course.html

thanks

I did see and look through that thread before. just sayin there's still not many of us out there.

coffeeluvr

calee63 wrote: »

Applied for the MSISA over a week ago and hadn't heard a thing from my enrollment counselor. After reading through some of the posts here, I ended up emailing and got a call almost immediately from another enrollment counselor. The ball is rolling now and looks like I'll be in by April. She was going to try for March but I'm using VA benefits so we pushed it back just in case we run into problems with that.

I haven't noticed many people here in the same program which is a real shame because I'm sure I'm going to need some help every now and then. I'll be sure to remain active if any other future people have questions that I could possibly answer. Also, I'm thinking of switching over to the new Network Management degree when it opens up so I'll keep you all posted.

Hey calee63, I just started the MSISA program February 1st. Welcome aboard!!

calee63

coffeeluvr wrote: »

Hey calee63, I just started the MSISA program February 1st. Welcome aboard!!

Thanks coffeeluvr. I'm not officially in yet but when I do get in I'm sure I'll be hitting you up with some questions. Hope all is working out for you so far.

gshoemaker

Well assuming my enrollment counselor gets his act together I am starting March 1, finally on the road to completing my degree. I am so excited and anxious to get started...wonder how long that will last LOL?

coffeeluvr

gshoemaker wrote: »

Well assuming my enrollment counselor gets his act together I am starting March 1, finally on the road to completing my degree. I am so excited and anxious to get started...wonder how long that will last LOL?

gshoemaker, I hope things work out so you can start March 1st....the sooner you start....the sooner you finish

gshoemaker

coffeeluvr wrote: »

gshoemaker, I hope things work out so you can start March 1st....the sooner you start....the sooner you finish

Thanks, me too. Everything is in order except my degree plan so I can submit it to my employer for payment. It has been like pulling teeth to get some of this stuff from my enrollment counselor.

usagent27

gshoemaker wrote: »

Thanks, me too. Everything is in order except my degree plan so I can submit it to my employer for payment. It has been like pulling teeth to get some of this stuff from my enrollment counselor.

just keep after them. thats what i did and i'm starting March 1st

spiderjericho

Well, my WGU journey never got started due to serious medical issues with my daughter. I was supposed to start in December, and it's now looking like April due to delays in getting tuition assistance from my employer.

My intake interview is next Tuesday.

My term consists of CIW Java, CIW Web Specialist, Microsoft Web MTA and Organizational Behavior.

Hopefully, I can knock these out in two to three months and then do technical writing, capstone and management principles.

ERP has me interested in attending a commencement. I opted out of attending my commencement at UMUC.