Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

techfiend

dragonsden: I hear it's quite a bit of writing, if you enjoy and can do it efficiently I think the 37(?) CU's is definitely realistic studying 20 hours a week. To give some perspective I'm about an average student, in 4 months I've completed 35 CU's of the BS IT degree studying ~35 hours per week and plan to complete 46-50 the first term.

Jasiono: If it's your first attempt, your student mentor should be able to approve it. Good luck on the first attempt, I don't think many pass it the first time, I was told that I did pretty good on it but failed, the second attempt was much easier.

The C179 course mentors are very difficult to get a hold of, it took me a week after first email for a reply, luckily it was a call that led to approval of the second attempt. What I'd do is take all the courseconnect quizzes and take screenshots of them, send to the course mentors and ask for approval of the second pre-test, pass that and ask for test approval. I kind of pushed my way through it as the course mentors seemed really busy, probably because of how poor the first test is.

It's really odd they are asking for a meetup before the first attempt, maybe they want to give you some tips because if you thought the pre-test didn't match the study, I think it was mostly on, just wait until the test. There will be at least a handful of things that you've never seen before and some where I'm not sure there's a correct answer. I think just reading the pearson study and skillsoft is enough for this course, the MIS book doesn't seem to add much. While pearson is to the point, it can be kind of difficult to grasp because of it.

I think the material is good to learn, just unfortunate about the first test, but new wgu courses often need polishing from my experience.

jbegarek

Ut oh, you're scaring me! I am just now starting C179... :-\ lol

Jasiono

Don't be afraid lol, I was talking out of anger.

So C179 is new eh, it needs a lot of polishing. I don't like jumping chapters when the chapters I jump to starts referring to things from chapters I haven't read about.

Chapter 10 makes reference to chapter 7 in some areas, but chapter 7 isn't required. I feel like I'm reading one of those goosebumps books where you choose your action and go to that page to continue reading based on your action.

I just want the test out of the way and over with

jbegarek

LOL Yeah I see what you mean already. It irks me even for small things like how it starts at chapter 1 and then the next section is chapter 3 .... chapter 2 is another section. But also in addition to chapter 3 it says read part of chapter 10! Good lord. I really don't care for this book either honestly... may need to find something better. Did you do the preassesment already? I got a 62 on that and now know what I need to work on to be able to pass it I hope. Best of luck to you.

Jasiono

Ok got some news on it, and she explained to me something that might help you and I hope it does.

The book is the supplement material, apparently.

She said that the book is just basically used for further clarification by the examples it gives throughout the chapters, but the CourseConnect is what we should be focusing heavily on.

I also told her that the questions are very vague in some areas and she told me to break it down to the very basic level. This really doesn't help me much.

For instance, 2 examples, and spoiler alert on the questions from the preassessment:

Categorize if the process is fully manual, fully automatic, or both automatic and manual.
The one answer that needed to be clarified was:

A farmer selling vegetables
I told her that arguably, the farmer could automate some of the process. She agreed but said that's not what they are looking for.

The other thing is data vs information.

Is a grade you received on your paper information or data?
Arguably, it's both. It's information derived from the total of your wrong answers vs correct answers.


It's stupid stuff like that.


Another discerning thing she had mentioned on the phone is that she even had issues with understanding the questions when she took the test, and she had to take it more than once. So she advised that I read it carefully and just break it down to it's simplest form.


So overall, in summary:

Break up the questions into the simplest form
Pay more attention to the CourseConnect than the actual book

Cenpon

Hey Everyone,

I have been going through the enrollment process for sometime now. I feel fortunate that I have a very nice enrollment counselor. However there are two things he is forever avoiding in terms of my questions.

1. How long after admissions do you know if you are accepted. I read online that they have 100% but on another forum it depends on your previous college/IT experience.

2.I read there is a interview on the website as part of the admissions process. Is it the enrollment counselor that conducts this interview. If so do they formally announce that they are interviewing you or is this process on-going considering they call once or twice a week.

Thank you ahead of time for anyone who replies to this post. I am anxious to start learning so i can finally get my degree.

Nemowolf

Cenpon wrote: »

Hey Everyone,

I have been going through the enrollment process for sometime now. I feel fortunate that I have a very nice enrollment counselor. However there are two things he is forever avoiding in terms of my questions.

1. How long after admissions do you know if you are accepted. I read online that they have 100% but on another forum it depends on your previous college/IT experience.

2.I read there is a interview on the website as part of the admissions process. Is it the enrollment counselor that conducts this interview. If so do they formally announce that they are interviewing you or is this process on-going considering they call once or twice a week.

Thank you ahead of time for anyone who replies to this post. I am anxious to start learning so i can finally get my degree.

Your enrollment councilor already interviewed you if your talking about it post conversation. They are supposed to guage your readiness for the school based on the conversation you had.


I found out shortly after i submitted my transcripts from school and certs

srabiee

cshkuru wrote: »

All right the masters starts today. After all the hassle it better be worth it

You and I are virtually the only ones on Techexams that are enrolled in this degree. I'm about halfway through the program. I wish you luck. If you ever get stuck with anything, PM me.

SteveLord

How realistic is it to complete 18cus per semester? Looking to get as much housing allowance from my 9/11 GI Bill as possible and 18cus is considered full time.

I would transfer in my CompTIA certs only. Would also signing up for the General BSIT, so I would have to do gen ed courses and I work full time.

techfiend

18 CU's is very obtainable in 1 six month term. Thing is at most colleges Fall and Winter semesters are usually 4-5 months, Summer semester 2-3 months, that might come in to play with the GI bill. 18 CU's in 2+ months while working full time is quite a bit of work but shouldn't be much issue in 4+ months as long as you remain motivated.

srabiee

I did 44 CU's my first semester of the BSIT:ND&M degree while working full-time. It's definitely doable.

Nemowolf

12-14 CUs was difficult for me to manage while working full time and trying to have something of a social life. It entirely depends on your individual scenario and how well you can manage to absorb the material. If you were Sheldon Cooper with an eidatic memory, picking up some of the classes would just be a matter of you reading the material fast enough.

nster

I also notice there is a big difference on how fast ppl learn online. Some people can be 3-4x more productive in class while others are twice as fast learning on their own online

ImThe0ne

Yep, I have 88cu left after my certs and previous college and am going to try really hard to walk in and knock at least 44cu the first 6 months. I do this crazy thing called not sleeping, so I am up until 2 or 3 oclock in the monring anyways. Hoping I can use those additional hrs and squeeze more in.
I start August 1st and am pretty jazzed, I should be able to start immediately and test out of Intro to IT as well as the A+.

Jasiono

God this C179 is such BS

Can't they look at all the coursework and stuff and polish it BEFORE setting it up for us students to use?

**********SPOILER ALERT*******

The quiz for chapter 3 asks:

Organizational strategy begins with an assessment of the _________.

They say that the correct answer is "business processes of the organization"

No it's not, the organization looks at the characteristics and structure of the industry.

techfiend

I understand why you think it's that but you have to know what the company is doing before analyzing the industry. You'll see identify then analyze or plan as first steps often, this is common in many courses and life.

Reading part of a chapter then read the whole chapter makes no sense, C483 also does it. The chapters out of order mostly makes sense to me. In c483 I just finished reading chapter 9 that built on what chapter 14 started. I did this at CC also. They are trying to fix what's broken in the textbook.

Jasiono

Yeah but the next question asks for the order of things an organization does and the correct answer is

look at the characteristics of the industry
come up with a strategy
Make your business process

and whatever else was in there.


Something isn't right

also, I spoke with the course mentor. She said the book is supplement and that I should heavily depend on the courseconnect reading instead.

techfiend

Q. Which sequence of events undertaken by a business is correct?
A. examine industry structure develop competitive strategy determine value chains create business process design information system

Again this is identifty, plan, etc.

Say you are hired to fix a struggling company, would you immediately jump to changing the organizational strategy without looking at the company's internal business processes?

That's right you don't need the MIS book, I mentioned that last week, it's really only useful for if you have trouble understanding the courseconnect. The 3 skillports near the end are needed, they are decent. Prepare to fail the first test. Make sure you are comfortable with the pre-test with 85%+ and you should do fine on the second test.

Jasiono

I would look at the market they are in first and then look at the way they run the business.

The two questions contradict each other, unless there is something I'm seriously missing.

Why would you create a strategy before looking at the market you are going into? To me, that's a failed attempt at trying to build a business, due to Porters 5 forces.

I understand where you are coming from, but the question didn't specify it the way that you have.

techfiend

Businesses process, which was hard for me to grasp, aren't really how they run the business but the input and output of the business e.g. buying inventory and selling product are business processes. Let's say a business finds out they are overcharging their customers. If you go look at the prices for the same product/service across the industry first what are you comparing to? If you examine the business processes first you'll have something to compare the rest of the industry to. Does that make more sense?

Put in IT sense, if you're told there's an issue what do you do first; think of solutions or examine the issue?

I can't stress the identify first, analyze/plan second, you'll see it all over this course and other business courses, as well as the comptia courses.

cshkuru

If anyone is interested here is a short (180 page) history of WGU. http://archive.li.suu.edu/docs/ms122/PP/WGU.pdf

Jasiono

Got an 80% on the C179 preassessment. Going to take the exam on Friday and hopefully pass.
I took the ethics portion for granted and skimmed over it so I have to go back and read it more carefully.
Also, it really helped that I took each question down to the bare bones and made sure I understood them before clicking on an answer. They really know how to throw some curveballs in there.

Febreezy

Man, you know things are wrong when the VA rep at a school has more useful information about your enrollment than your enrollment counselor.

SteveLord

I am scheduled to talk to enrollment on Monday. I will be picking up where I left off a few years ago.....wishing I hadn't postponed the process as I would have my degree by now. :-\

Jasiono

Don't beat yourself up over it. Life happens, we all make choices.

Jasiono

I passed the C179 exam
Woohoo!

TR4V1STY

srabiee wrote: »

I did 44 CU's my first semester of the BSIT:ND&M degree while working full-time. It's definitely doable.

Nice! I hope to hit a similar number. I started on April 1st and have done 25 credits as of yesterday. With 9 credits transferred in, that's 28% of the program done. BOOM.

Working on the N+ now.

I am scheduled to talk to enrollment on Monday. I will be picking up where I left off a few years ago.....wishing I hadn't postponed the process as I would have my degree by now. :-\

It's never too late!

zidian

TR4V1STY wrote: »

...I started on April 1st and have done 25 credits as of yesterday...

That is fantastic progress!

The Net+ I thought was the easiest of the A+/Net+/Sec+ courses, so I bet you can do that one pretty quick too.

Jasiono

TR4V1STY wrote: »

Nice! I hope to hit a similar number. I started on April 1st and have done 25 credits as of yesterday. With 9 credits transferred in, that's 28% of the program done. BOOM.

Working on the N+ now.

It's never too late!

Ask your mentor if you can drop the N+ once you pass ICND1 and ICND2. Mine told me it would drop.
1 less class for you.

Winzer

Why oh why must they use UPS to ship the webcam... it's by far the worst shipping company there is. Always a nightmare to get your stuff from them if you're not home 24/7. Not to mention their overpriced 'brokerage fee'.

/rant