Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

TLeTourneau

demonfurbie wrote: »

just finished the network management masters ... that was a ton of paperwork

Congratulations!!

EruMais

I have a capstone question... can a capstone be based on a theoretical situation/company, etc.. , or does it have to have some sort of direct interaction with an actual entity? I have a few courses I need to finish before then, but I wanted to start thinking about what I want to do so I can get it done quickly.

Hypntick

The capstone does not have to be based in an actual situation. So it can be a hypothetical and you'll do just fine.

Anyone else coming to commencement in a couple of weeks? Curious to see if any other TE folks will be there.

coolifornia

Do you consider this like a typical online college learning experience or is it something very different?

TomkoTech

This is something entirely different. Go to their website. It is competency based learning. You take X amount of competency units per 6 month term. As you take and pass the exams/certifications/whatever the requirement to meet competency is you get credit for the course. So course A requires you to take and pass the A+ certification. If you start the term February 1st, take and pass the A+ February 15th then you are done with that course and move on to the next.

NOLAJ

It's been a little bit, but I'm back March 1, starting MBA program...

ecuadra

Does the Comptia A+ satisfy IT Fundamentals 1 as well or just IT Fundamentas 2 and 3?

NOLAJ

Not sure of the exact courses anymore, but each A+ exam fulfills the requirement for 1 class. So A+ = 2 tests, and 2 courses.

Danielm7

ecuadra wrote: »

Does the Comptia A+ satisfy IT Fundamentals 1 as well or just IT Fundamentas 2 and 3?

A+ = Fund 2 and 3. Fund 1 is a CIW certification.

dspielman

Just got approved from admissions and I am planning on starting in April. My MCSA for Server 2012 allowed me to transfer in 24 credits (4 classes) I believe. The whole enrollment process has been very easy and I didn't have any of the issues people have been complaining about with the whole process. I am doing my final interview in Feb I believe. I am excited I havent even started and I am already below 100 units to go!

Iristheangel

Finished my Prospectus and now moving onto to the capstone. I pretty much have to lock myself in my office and isolate until I finish this thing. I have 28 days until the end of the semester and I need it, the multimedia presentation and the oral defense done by them.

Starting to get stressed.

TLeTourneau

Iristheangel wrote: »

Finished my Prospectus and now moving onto to the capstone. I pretty much have to lock myself in my office and isolate until I finish this thing. I have 28 days until the end of the semester and I need it, the multimedia presentation and the oral defense done by them.

Starting to get stressed.

Slow deep breathes Iris, you'll get it done.

Hypntick

You'll knock it out Iris, just a whole lot of writing. The oral defense isn't nearly as stressful as you might think, it's a fairly relaxed atmosphere and more of a peer discussion than anything else. Good luck on it!

eric281

I started 1/1/2014 and I'm absolutely loving it so far. I was lucky to be just finishing up my CCDA and MCSA when I started my enrollment, so I ended up transferring in a ton of credit (59 cu). That left me only 61 cu to finish. I got laid off from my job before I started, so I decided that I would focus on this full time until I was done before I started working. On my first call with my student mentor, I told her I wanted to finish in one term, and I'm not sure if she believed me. She has done a lot to help me work towards it though.

So far I developed an efficient method of study, really trying to use the pareto principle to manage my time. As of today, I've finished all of the classes that are only objective exams. I've spent very little time looking at Taskstream, so I'm not sure what to expect as far as difficulty or time compared to the classes with just objective assessments. Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

I'm starting to work on IWC1 (Literature, Arts and the Humanities) and UBC1 (Physics) now. I hope that with the low cut score of IWC1 that I can pass the pre-assessment tomorrow.

-hype

How long is IWT1 going to take? I'm good at writing essays and all but I see there are 2 essays I need to write. Do i have to wait on the people who grade my stuff before beginning my 2nd one?

I will have 5 weeks left, is that ample time? Any idea on what the essay topics are on?

Iristheangel

Finished and turned in my capstone. Let's see how many times I have to revise 75 pages :P

Excellent1

Congrats, Iris! Has to be a huge weight off. I'm ramping up for my capstone now, so I can empathize. Good luck on the results--I'm sure you'll kill it.

mokaiba

Iristheangel wrote: »

Finished and turned in my capstone. Let's see how many times I have to revise 75 pages :P

im tempted to turn in a 500 page capstone just to see if they have me revise it.

Iristheangel

Just got the evaluation complete email. I have a 15 minute oral defense left and I am done!

TLeTourneau

Iristheangel wrote: »

Just got the evaluation complete email. I have a 15 minute oral defense left and I am done!

Congratulations and good luck!

JoJoCal19

Can anyone comment on how accessible all of the various resources for WGU are on an iPad? How well does accessing the course material and also the additional labs/resources for some of the cert classes? I'm upgrading to an iPad Air as I'd like to not have to use my laptop for anything other than typing out long papers.

ratbuddy

Unless you've already spent money on the Apple ecosystem and feel some loyalty to their brand, you'd be much better off with a real tablet computer running full Windows 8.1 rather than an ipad.

JoJoCal19

ratbuddy wrote: »

Unless you've already spent money on the Apple ecosystem and feel some loyalty to their brand, you'd be much better off with a real tablet computer running full Windows 8.1 rather than an ipad.

Yes I am invested in the Apple ecosystem. But aside from that, I had a Samsung ATIV Smart PC with full Win 8 that I just traded away.

eric281

I do some of my reading on my ipad. Problem is that every class has a different delivery method, and many of them include a lot of flash stuff. Basically, I'd say it's usable, but don't count on it being your only way to work through the content.

eric281

Anyone else having trouble with Kryterion? I had two classes scheduled today, and I can't take either of them. I keep not wanting to start working on another course while I'm waiting for them to come up, but I feel like I'm wasting the day

zidian

eric281 wrote: »

Anyone else having trouble with Kryterion?

Their servers crashed yesterday. I talked with them as late as 11PM EST and the servers were still down. They rescheduled my exam for tonight at 11PM EST.

Danielm7

For people who have done the Java courses (TXP1, TXC1, TYP1, TYC1) I've seen people suggest the head start java book, would that cover both courses and projects? Same question with the New Boston (List of Videos for Java) videos. Any other suggestions for learning material for someone with zero java/programming experience?

ratbuddy

Head First Java is all you need. TheNewBoston's videos are kinda awful. He has you type a bunch of snippets, and he doesn't really explain how stuff works. I guess some people enjoy that sort of thing, but if you want to learn theory, the book is much better than his videos.

Danielm7

Thanks, ratbuddy, I'm down the home stretch in coursework and don't want to waste time on material that isn't all that helpful, especially considering I don't have a lot (any) use for java in my job.

I found the first maybe 10-15 videos on newboston helpful, but not completely foreign because I had read some of that already from the wiley book. Then around video 16 or so I'm completely lost, even typing the exact same code as he is in the same editor doesn't work. Seems the youtube commenters mostly feel the same way that it was being done at an understandable pace then suddenly dropped off completely to where you can't follow unless you're already a programmer.

Edit: Related question, since this is my first series of classes with a "project in" is there actually learning material for the test itself? Meaning if I do project in intro to programming, do I just roll right into the intro to programming course and take the test?

zidian

Danielm7 wrote: »

Edit: Related question, since this is my first series of classes with a "project in" is there actually learning material for the test itself? Meaning if I do project in intro to programming, do I just roll right into the intro to programming course and take the test?

There isn't anything extra you need for the test. The same material is used for both.