Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

demonfurbie

echo465 wrote: »

I spoke with the course mentor on the phone...snip....

the most cost effective degree at wgu is the standard it degree get the major certs after

Psoasman

Hypntick wrote: »

Technet and labbing like a mad-man are your friends.

Exactly. That's what I spent most of my time doing.

echo465

KeithC wrote: »

I am not too worried about it. I spoke to my mentor and he eased my concerns of how much investigation was placed into the change. The course mentor suggest I use the new LR instead of Labsim.

Maybe you need a new mentor but I'm paying to earn my Bachelor's degree.

I suspect that the investigation focused on cost savings. I suppose if you have an accountant steal $500k, that money has to come from somewhere*. The course mentor suggested that I use the new LR instead too (of course).

Like you, I'm paying to earn my Bachelor's degree. That degree includes several certifications, and those courses until very recently included study material that has worked very well for me - first attempt on 70-680 and 640. I'm irritated because I had a plan to use the same resources for the 642 and 646, and the new LR's seem substandard to me.

* reference, http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53997971-78/wilkinson-university-checks-community.html.csp

erpadmin

echo465 wrote: »

I suspect that the investigation focused on cost savings. I suppose if you have an accountant steal $500k, that money has to come from somewhere*. The course mentor suggested that I use the new LR instead too (of course).

Trust me, WGU is insured. I'm sure they recouped that money.

It's just that now they might have a higher premium.

KeithC

echo465 wrote: »

....

Like you, I'm paying to earn my Bachelor's degree. That degree includes several certifications, and those courses until very recently included study material that has worked very well for me - first attempt on 70-680 and 640. I'm irritated because I had a plan to use the same resources for the 642 and 646, and the new LR's seem substandard to me.

You may not want to hear this but you can purchase the classes from testout directly. I'm not sure if they still offer the special but back in 2010 I purchased two classes for $89.00 each. I remember I had to contact one of their academic / student sales associates and submitted a pdf screen shot proving I was a student.

I would call the 1-800 number at the bottom of this page. Explain how you are a WGU student and I would think they could help.

As for me I'll play ball and use the new LR book.

Hypntick

Yeah when my mentor mentioned they were getting new learning resources for the MS classes, I had her go ahead and open up labsim for the 70-680 for me. She didn't know which resources they were getting and I didn't want to chance it. Even though labsim is far from perfect, it's still a resource that I'll know what level of knowledge to expect from it. Although once more, I expect this test much like the server ones will require much technet and lab time.

themagicone

Back to wonderful world of taskstream and the misleading instructions. Oh and the mentor who send a caned response to a question on it. I really only have one complaint about WGU and it is this. I'm trying to finish up this risk management class but for the life of me figure out the task. In one part of the rubrics it asks for something but then it doesn't in the next. The community isn't helpful, some say you have write this one section, other doesn't. Course mentor just said "include details". What does that mean? What kind of details?

CompuTron99

KeithC wrote: »

I just had my first major disappointment with WGU....snip....

I'm enrolled in the 70-642 at the moment. I found that after May 1st the links to LabSim were missing from my Course of Study.
I went to the TestOut web site and logged in with my WGU creditials and I am still able to access LabSim. This was because I was already enrolled. If you were already using LabSim you "should" still be able to log in. If you enrolled after 5/1/12, then you will have the MOAC material.

KeithC

removed unnecessary quote

Kinda yes I have access to Labsim and the MOAC for 70-640. My mentor said he wasn't sure how long I would have access but usually the key's for Labsim were good for each term.

Melika635

Waiting on my tech writing paper to be graded, Day 4 of constantly checking TaskStream. Come ooonnnnnn.....

erpadmin

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Go to WGU Email Settings

Create a filter that has whenever notification(at-sign)taskstream.com email come to you it emails your cell phone (whether it is a smart or dumbphone...if you have verizon, for example, it's 2223334444(at)vtext.com .

Whenever taskstream email is received, you will get it on your cell. No need to constantly check. You may still do it, but it will be a lot less.

Melika635

I admittedly already have my email set up to go to my phone, I keep checking anyway. I'm just obsessive that way. :P At this point, I'm honestly just checking to see if it's even been picked up yet!

erpadmin

removed unnecessary quote

Yeah, that's why I wrote the last sentence. Taskstream certainly leads to a compulsion. Definitely something I can relate to.

themagicone

Melika635 wrote: »

I admittedly already have my email set up to go to my phone, I keep checking anyway. I'm just obsessive that way. :P At this point, I'm honestly just checking to see if it's even been picked up yet!

Oh that's even worse! Keep checking until you can't change it. Then you know it's being looked at you check even more! What sucks for me right now is I can't even turn it in! My taskstream isn't working.

Melika635

WOOOOHHHOOOOO! It's a pass! Just Capstone and Win7 standing between me and that diploma! I'm already halfway through my capstone, should be able to submit it by the end of the week.

Valsacar

Gratz, I just started the MSISA program and finally got my first evals done. 4/5 tasks that were evaluated passed, one didn't (with a wonderfully vague and completely useless comment)... I'll have to fix that tonight and hopefully get 1 course (non-transfer) done here soon.

themagicone

Is it just me or is Taskstream getting slower and slower? It took a call to student services just to get my class to load into it. And that was a week after the request was made. Turned in a task Saturday morning and still no response tonight. When I first started my BS program 2 years ago programs were loaded into it the second my mentor approved it. My evals would come back with in hours. Now it 4-5 days!

jmasterj206

It is getting slower all around. Probably due to the increase in students. I think it took Tasksteam 4 days to load in KET1 for me. The last score report I turned in for a CIW exam it took 7 days for them to post the scores. It is a whole lot different than when I started almost 2 years ago.

erpadmin

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Holy crap!

I heard rumors at commencement that Taskstream was going to go bye-bye. But I think it was more of a pipedream. It's not even half of the month...normally when stuff is handed-in in the beginning of the month, it was graded pretty quickly. Never went past 5 days (even including weekends.) Taskstream is f'ing up.

At the rate they are going, WGU is gonna have to hire more people. From reading Glassdoor, they seem to like promoting folks more than hiring.

Hypntick

My arm is killing me, have been typing most of the day. Have only two more sections of tech writing to complete before submission. Had to take a couple of weeks off, life issues popped up. I really need to finish both tech and cap by the 28th, as the 29th and 30th I have firewall training and certification, followed by the next week going to CT for training and certification on our backup devices. Between the 31st and 5th I hope to get some serious GAC1 study time in, with a pass shortly after returning from CT. I'm designating the 16th of June as day 1 of 70-680 study time, have my book, have my labsim, and have my server up and ready for VM lovin. Have some vacation time saved up, may go on a mini vacation when i'm done, could use it.

phaneuf1

I lost all my motivation because of ONE course: Natural science. I failed the first attempt. it's been 1 week since I reopened the books. I need Advice

natv

I haven't taken this yet but I did find this posting that may be helpful in studying for it:
The WGU Survival Guide: INC1 Tip - UPDATED 9/25/2011

Hope this helps

themagicone

The natural science class isn't bad. Watching the videos in the community. Plus attend the sessions put on my the mentors. If they still have the $8 candy bar video that was the best.

jmasterj206

I agree with magicone. I just went through the videos in the learning community and really didnt bother with the book. If I remember there is a study guide out there that you have to fill in the answers yourself, but I was able to get that from the videos. I think you have to ask the course mentors for the study guide.

NOLAJ

Does anyone happen to have the description for the 4th task for LET1? I'm trying to get a jump on the next term and have finished the 1st 3 tasks, but the link for task 4 is dead.

Hypntick

NOLAJ wrote: »

Does anyone happen to have the description for the 4th task for LET1? I'm trying to get a jump on the next term and have finished the 1st 3 tasks, but the link for task 4 is dead.

Check your PM box.

dt3k

How long did it take everyone to do LAT1?

Hypntick

When I finally started on it with any degree of seriousness, about 3 days. It took longer for them to grade the sections.

NOLAJ

Hypntick wrote: »

Check your PM box.

Thanks man!!

erpadmin

dt3k wrote: »

How long did it take everyone to do LAT1?

From the time the course was open til about the end if was a good few weeks. I had to take a week off from work JUST do properly deal with the final product. Mind you, since starting WGU, LAT1 was arguably the most difficult paper I ever had to write. Not because of my topic, not because of the length, but because of all the added bullcrap (like balloons and strikethrough...I'm NEVER going to use that.)

The only good thing about LAT1 was I was taught how to write a decent paper in APA format. I actually like APA now. The only thing I don't do is running heads. (For my graduate-level papers...for WGU, I definitely kept using running heads....) My professors did not care how one cited a paper, they just wanted the paper cited. Since it was like that, I just kept using APA format.