So a little birdie told me about a new MS at WGU

petedude

instant000 wrote: »

If the course is going to have all performance assessments, I'll be better off where I am. The performance assessments are murder for me. I even have a system set up, LOL, and I still don't do the papers fast enough:

You have a good plan of attack, you just might be a little slower at writing everything up.

For a master's, I don't mind the notion of performance assessments as master's programs at most schools are writing intensive. It's just that usually the advantage of a WGU diploma is you can knock out credits with exams.

I actually am looking at a few other schools' programs due to locally specific preferences I've heard rumor of, not because WGU has bad programs. I might change my mind, however, depending on this new master's. I'll probably still be pounding away on the OOP course at 1/1, so I'll have a better idea then what I'll want to do.

instant000

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Hmmm, that is interesting about the no certifications. My mentor said MS and Cisco certs. I guess they must have changed their minds. I plan to go to a traditional school for my master's, but may have considered it if there were certs involved. There is no way I could stand to deal with Taskstream that much.

Hah.

I know how you feel. I dislike the Performance Assessments myself. But, as far as difficulty, for me, writing 3 or 4 papers for a class is much harder than studying for a single certification test, in comparison to the hours I have to spend reading and revising for a paper, versus the time I would read and lab for a certification. So, from the knowledge richness standpoint, writing the papers and backing up your thoughts with references is better for me.

As far as the certs, if you just wanted them, you'd probably get a much more cost-effective option (versus the schooling) to do the following:
1 - get an all-access pass with a cert vendor
2 - buy the books you need from Amazon
3 - buy the EQ you need from Ebay, and/or use GNS3/VirtualBox/VmWare
4 - spend the time reading the books and labbing

I mean to say, it would be so awesome to just knock out the certs to get a degree, but the intent behind the Master's would have to be a little better than just showing you how to use a vendor's products, and should serve to give you a certain depth that would exceed what you'd get from a vendor's take on something. As far as certs, junior colleges, tech schools, and cert vendors already offer those, to be honest. What they don't offer is a solid theoretical foundation, which you see engineers and leaders lacking in the field. (Sure, the type to self-study, which is typical of someone who's on this forum in the first place, would likely seek after the deep theoretical knowledge and foundation anyway, so this may be a moot point.)

Of course, the obvious counter-point is that WGU sells itself on being a school that prepares students for the workplace. Typically, master's students (and WGU students in general) are already in the work place, so a cert might not help the student as much as sound theory would.

It would be interesting to know what most student's take on this is. (Maybe a good idea for a poll.)

instant000

The birdie was speaking the truth:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/72626-confirmed-new-masters-wgu.html

Chris:/*

I disagree with the statement that the college should be teaching students how to use tools. That is not typical in any MS program. At big name colleges professors provide you the information and it is up to you to either learn it yourself and or play with the tools. Educational institutions that teach specific tools are either involved in training programs or trade preparation. Since a typical MS program is there to teach students the domain of knowledge at a professional level I think WGU is on the right track. Using third party certifications to test students make for a more difficult testing environment than standard college exams and even gives additional validity to degree.