New to WGU - Tips and Tools

demonfurbie

i see in all the other wgu posts we wgu students keep posting tips and tools to the classes at wgu and about 20 pages later posting them again, so i thought it may be a good idea to start just a tread just for the links and stuff we used for the classes at wgu


BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free - for apa stuffs

Read-Only Flashcard Set - project management

http://mobile.skillport.books24x7.com - better version of books 24/7 (group code is wgu)

Create A Graph - easy graphs for math classes

please add any ya think are helpful

LinuxRacr

Here is another link to FREE software that helped tremendously with math graphing: MathGV Function Plotting Software

petedude

http://www.cengagebrain.com - Another good resource for eTextbooks and chapters on specific topics

(and I'm hoping we see that WGU sub-forum magically appear soon. Maybe Santa will bring it?)

erpadmin

I hope that tips/tricks aren't relagated to free...

I have always recommended an Amazon Kindle for Text To Speech. (Not the Fire, as I don't believe it even offers TTS.) I truly helped me pass Project+ in a matter of days! (That, uCertify,DF's flash cards and years of experience with PM...but the guide MOSTLY helped.)

The use of Microsoft Word's citation function found in the reference tab for easy in-place citations. Saves SO much time. Bibme.org is great when you want to create that annotated bibliography. Though even then, you will need Word's help to massage the hanging indents a bit.

Read the student handbook! Can't stress that enough...a lot of questions can be answered there.

erpadmin

Just upgraded Microsoft Office to 2010 (will be doing the same at work!)

Microsoft Word now has APA 6th Edition format!!! (Didn't have it in 2007, only fifth edition.) Mind you, I can't tell you what the differences are, but if you have a paper to do for LAT1/QBT1, you're gonna really like how Word handles in-place citations.

Just wanted to let you guys know.

TLeTourneau

Another good one:

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0

joshmadakor

Eh? What level of Math is needed for the WGU IT degrees? I have taken everything up to and including Pre-Calculus. I'm wondering if that will be enough to not have to bother with their math classes. It should be enough for IT imo..

TLeTourneau

joshmadakor wrote: »

Eh? What level of Math is needed for the WGU IT degrees? I have taken everything up to and including Pre-Calculus. I'm wondering if that will be enough to not have to bother with their math classes. It should be enough for IT imo..

Did you take them in college? If so they should transfer, if not you'll probably have to take the math classes.

LinuxRacr

My finite math class transferred from UoP no problem.

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

Just upgraded Microsoft Office to 2010 (will be doing the same at work!)

Microsoft Word now has APA 6th Edition format!!! (Didn't have it in 2007, only fifth edition.) Mind you, I can't tell you what the differences are, but if you have a paper to do for LAT1/QBT1, you're gonna really like how Word handles in-place citations.

I actually almost like Word 2007. Word 2010 makes you hit Ctrl-P or navigate menus to print, and that alone almost makes me dislike it. Old versions of Word (or Works, even, if you're really strapped for cash) can be had dirt cheap, and I think the old .doc format will still be around for a long while yet. The latest Wine can run most of these if you have Linux. And to gab further, my favorite Word versions are actually old Mac ones.

My regular preference right now is for OpenOffice. The compatibility with Word files is decent, and if you're unsure whether it's working right, install one of the free Word viewers from MS to check before sending. Haven't pushed the spreadsheet hard enough yet to know how well it transfers to Excel for power users, but for light work seems to be just fine. Have used the OO presentations module off and on for several years, and it seems to export to PowerPoint well. Their database is a work in progress, but you won't need Access-level databases unless you're on the WGU database track.

I've tried LibreOffice, and as much as I like the interface, it just doesn't seem ready for prime-time yet. I'm bummed that the Linux distros have been so quick to switch over to it lately.

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

I actually almost like Word 2007. Word 2010 makes you hit Ctrl-P or navigate menus to print, and that alone almost makes me dislike it. Old versions of Word (or Works, even, if you're really strapped for cash) can be had dirt cheap, and I think the old .doc format will still be around for a long while yet. The latest Wine can run most of these if you have Linux. And to gab further, my favorite Word versions are actually old Mac ones.

I dunno....as much as I'm a hotkey fanatic, I believe 90% of the time I just use the mouse to print. In fact, I just used Word 2007 (haven't upgraded yet, because I'm gonna wait until I migrate to W7 enterprise), and I had to use Ctrl-P. I really hated the ribbon on Word 2007, though I got used to it. To be honest, I would have been happy staying with Word 2003, but the References function in 2007 made me upgrade at home (at work, we were forced to upgrade to 2007....thanks to one of the adjuncts who insisted on it.) The APA function in Word is going to really help me too, because I'm pretty sure I'll be stuck with APA at NJIT (and even if I'm not, whatever the particular professor uses...MLA, ALA, etc., etc., is all part of Word!)

BTW, I really abhor OpenOffice or any of the other ilk. I tried giving OO a chance, but it, without fail, always had a problem opening up documents. Then to deal with other viewers....no thanks.


Also, the only time I've ever used MS Access was as a frontend to a POS SQL Server database to do some quick-and-dirty cleanup. That was like one time...since then, I found it just as easy to just write queries to do that same job. If a database is that small where SQL Server/Oracle is not required, then we'll go the MySQL route. In fact, I'm surprised Oracle wouldn't just go that route for their Access ripoff and just put a frontend piece infront of the mySQL backend (since they own both mySQL and OO...)

I dunno...I have always had access to MS Office since 1995. The only Office I have never installed was Office XP (I went from 2000 [crappiest Office EVER!] to 2003 [when it got really stable. ])

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

Also, the only time I've ever used MS Access was as a frontend to a POS SQL Server database to do some quick-and-dirty cleanup. That was like one time...since then, I found it just as easy to just write queries to do that same job. If a database is that small where SQL Server/Oracle is not required, then we'll go the MySQL route. In fact, I'm surprised Oracle wouldn't just go that route for their Access ripoff and just put a frontend piece infront of the mySQL backend (since they own both mySQL and OO...)

I dunno...I have always had access to MS Office since 1995. The only Office I have never installed was Office XP (I went from 2000 [crappiest Office EVER!] to 2003 [when it got really stable. ])

I liked Office '00, but my favorite was probably Office '03-- once I got settled into it. The Office 07 ribbon thing really annoyed me, as I'd finally gotten used to Office '03 when that came along.

And as far as OO/Oracle. . . they handed OO to the Apache team. It's no longer an Oracle product-- but I see your point, though. They missed an excellent chance to integrate their database offerings through OO.

erpadmin

petedude wrote: »

And as far as OO/Oracle. . . they handed OO to the Apache team. It's no longer an Oracle product-- but I see your point, though. They missed an excellent chance to integrate their database offerings through OO.

Wow....I'm a bit embarrassed (not much, but a little.)

[This only shows how much I follow OO...but this missed me completely. I missed this news by about seven months. lol.]