WGU on CNN

CompuTron99

Students go at own pace at school without boundaries – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs

forestgiant

Every time an article like this gets posted it draws the detractors out of the wood with the vicious verbal attacks against all things online education. Virtually all the attacks are baseless, willfully ignorant, or just plain dumb. They question the validity and delivery methods of WGU as if it's inherently inferior to B&M, but fail to acknowledge that many B&M are catching up to online education themselves.

Iristheangel

forestgiant wrote: »

Every time an article like this gets posted it draws the detractors out of the wood with the vicious verbal attacks against all things online education. Virtually all the attacks are baseless, willfully ignorant, or just plain dumb. They question the validity and delivery methods of WGU as if it's inherently inferior to B&M, but fail to acknowledge that many B&M are catching up to online education themselves.

I had a little fun replying to some of those, Forest. I am always amazed when some of these detractors who can't even spell criticize our education.

erpadmin

forestgiant wrote: »

Every time an article like this gets posted it draws the detractors out of the wood with the vicious verbal attacks against all things online education. Virtually all the attacks are baseless, willfully ignorant, or just plain dumb. They question the validity and delivery methods of WGU as if it's inherently inferior to B&M, but fail to acknowledge that many B&M are catching up to online education themselves.

[I officially hate the following phrase since it's become "mainstream....." but it's so apropo to this statement that I have to say it.]

"Haters gonna hate."

That's about all I'm gonna say about that.

djfunz

Iristheangel wrote: »

I had a little fun replying to some of those, Forest. I am always amazed when some of these detractors who can't even spell criticize our education.

I thought Katie was pretty humorous. Could that have possibility been you Iristheangel?

Iristheangel

djfunz wrote: »

I thought Katie was pretty humorous. Could that have possibility been you Iristheangel?

Sure was

Iristheangel

Is it sad that I hope one of them shows up?

veritas_libertas

Nice.

With time I expect to see online education becoming more and more common. The old B&Ms are fighting this, while in reality much, if not most of their classes are available online.

tpatt100

Doesn't the article sound like a rehash of previous news articles?

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

There's a comment thread where someone said they graduated from a state university debt free with a BS in Engineering and Computer Science. So many responded to her post saying that it's impossible to graduate from college debt free... That's pretty sad.

LinuxRacr

Iristheangel wrote: »

Is it sad that I hope one of them shows up?

Very nice. Like ERPadmin said, "haters gonna hate."

djfunz

Iristheangel wrote: »

Sure was

I figured as much but I'm disappointed. I made the spelling mistake above on purpose just for you in hopes that you would attack me.

jmasterj206

Iris I will be sure to stay on your good side. Education is always going to be a hot topic. Heck, there are people on here that still think WGU is a diploma mill.

Iristheangel

djfunz wrote: »

I figured as much but I'm disappointed. I made the spelling mistake above on purpose just for you in hopes that you would attack me.

LOL. I r the samrt.

Psoasman

Iristheangel wrote: »

I had a little fun replying to some of those, Forest. I am always amazed when some of these detractors who can't even spell criticize our education.

+1 Rep. Your comments made me laugh! It is hard to take someone serious who is spouting off about something they know nothing about. Nearly all B&M schools have some form of online education, but those fools don't seem to mind that.

FloOz

jeez theres a flame war going on in there lol

Psoasman

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Iris I will be sure to stay on your good side. Education is always going to be a hot topic. Heck, there are people on here that still think WGU is a diploma mill.

Those people are wrong. You often get out what you put in. So far, I have way over studied for all the courses I've taken at WGU so far, but have learned and retained the information.

LinuxRacr

I just replied. People sure do assume a lot without actually doing the research...

Iristheangel

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Iris I will be sure to stay on your good side. Education is always going to be a hot topic. Heck, there are people on here that still think WGU is a diploma mill.

LOL. No worries. It was an amusing way to kill my last two hours at work yesterday. People will think what they will and that's fine. I, personally, have learned a LOT during my time at WGU and will probably pursue a Master's degree there. I think that schools like DeVry, ITT Tech, and University of Phoenix has given online degrees a horrible name so I can't fault them for the assumption. I *will* laugh at them and probably comment if they criticize my education while having the writing skills of a 3rd grade dropout.

As far as the value of my degree in the job field, I think it gets me past the HR doorman but what really gets you the job is how well your soft skills are and how well you do during the technical interview. I can't even tell you how many times the IT manager here has tried to interview networking guys who had "10+ years of experience" or "CCNP certified" only to have them fail when asked SIMPLE questions. By simple, I mean, "What is NAT and when would you implement it?" or "Take me through the steps that you would do to assign an IP address to an interface."

erpadmin

Hmmm...what's really going on?

WGU=no tenured professors.

B&M schools (private and public) tenured-track professors that not only have a job for life (not an exaggeration: it would take an act of God to have be given the ability to fire a tenured-track professor. Non-tenured is a bit easier, but once they become tenured....it's a wrap), but make a sweet six-figure salary, and have a courseload that's laughable (at best).

Yes, I can see why they would attack the WGU model...WGU is an attack on their livelihood.

But the thing is though, BOTH models can coexist....there shouldn't be a us vs. them mentality. But the fact that academia is opening its mouth about WGU means WGU is a very valid threat to the way higher education in the US currently exists.

Psoasman

erpadmin wrote: »

Yes, I can see why they would attack the WGU model...WGU is an attack on their livelihood.
But the thing is though, BOTH models can coexist....there shouldn't be a us vs. them mentality. But the fact that academia is opening its mouth about WGU means WGU is a very valid threat to the way higher education in the US currently exists.

I did a lot of research on schools before choosing WGU. The positive threads on Tech Exams helped with that. I could have chosen UoP and walked away with 40K of debt. I chose WGU because I will walk away with zero debt and have a degree from an accredited school. I suspect that a lot of the attacks are not so much based on "worthless online degree mills" but the loss of revenue for the traditional schools. WGU had record enrollment last year and probably will this year. I believe some people on this forum dropped out of UoP, Devry, etc to come to WGU.

Reading on the CNN comments, one of the main ones was "Where is your hands-on learning coming from?" For me, I have set up a test network with 2 DC, a member server, 2 clients. I labbed through every single objective for the 640 exam - probably around 40 hours or so. I went through every LabSim video, lab, and exam. I read through 3000+ pages of text. If you follow the suggested COS for these programs, you are almost certainly going to have more time put in than at a traditional school.

I went to a local CC and the IT courses were hybrid-online. The exams and reading were online, while we did labs in the classroom. I got less hands-on that way, due to all the distractions and side topics. It, of course, depends on your learning style, but if you are a self-directed learner, then WGU will be a great match for you.

djfunz

Iristheangel wrote: »

I can't even tell you how many times the IT manager here has tried to interview networking guys who had "10+ years of experience" or "CCNP certified" only to have them fail when asked SIMPLE questions. By simple, I mean, "What is NAT and when would you implement it?" or "Take me through the steps that you would do to assign an IP address to an interface."

Seriously? That's CCENT level knowledge!

Iristheangel

djfunz wrote: »

Seriously? That's CCENT level knowledge!

Exactly. Though we did get one candidate that was very technical but a quick Google search of his name and we found out he was somewhat of a celebrity:
IT Admin Locks up San Francisco's Network | PCWorld Business Center

Yes. THAT guy applied for a network engineer job with us.

rwmidl

:: Disclaimer: I went to and graduated from a "traditional" 4 year state university so my opinion may be biased. Please don't hate.:::

I've had a college degree for many years now, so honestly I don't know much about WGU. That being said, I can see where people come to negative conclusions regarding online college degrees. Look at the commercials of the girl in her pj's hocking online schools and you can "get your college degree without getting out of bed". I'm not saying WGU does that.

Traditional schools may not be for everyone. Personally, I think going away to school for 4 years did wonders for me. Not only did I learn a lot (I took courses that not only did I need to graduate, but courses that also interested me. Taking Japanese as your foreign language from an instructor from Japan who was working on his Phd in Classical English Literature was a learning experience! He was also an awesome professor, but I digress...), but I also grew up by having to learn to live on my own, be responsible for myself etc. But that's just me...

Everyone

Iristheangel wrote: »

By simple, I mean, "What is NAT and when would you implement it?" or "Take me through the steps that you would do to assign an IP address to an interface."

I'm not a Networking person, or a CCanything, and even I can answer those.

petedude

Psoasman wrote: »

Those people are wrong. You often get out what you put in. So far, I have way over studied for all the courses I've taken at WGU so far, but have learned and retained the information.

Same here. Why **** yourself out of an opportunity to actually learn?

NetworkingStudent

CompuTron99 wrote: »

Students go at own pace at school without boundaries – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs

How does someone graduate debt free from WGU? It’s $6,000 per year, correct? Can you make a per month payment? I know I could do this while I was in community/technical college…

A couple of observations:

I think WGU could be one of the answers to the rising college costs. To bad Obama probably won’t look at this school…

I went to a career college/ for profit..ect, however I have attended community colleges and technical colleges, and I can tell you the hardest part is showing up. Since WGU is only online, you must make yourself show up( Ok you may have a spouse push you to show up..haha), and it requires an extreme amount of self discipline and self control to become successful.

While I was in college I took a few online classes and it’s no walk in the park. You need to answer forum posts, and post on topics at least once a week. You have papers to do, assignments, and tests. Sometimes you are checking your grades daily, or at least I did to make sure you are progressing and passing the class.

KeithC

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

How does someone graduate debt free from WGU? It’s $6,000 per year, correct? Can you make a per month payment? I know I could do this while I was in community/technical college…

Beginning of term $1645 is due and then three months later $1445 is due which for me my second portion is due on 5/1. The second payment can be made in smaller installments without additional "Plan Fee" of $55. I just started my second term on 2/1 which will total $3090

forestgiant

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

I think WGU could be one of the answers to the rising college costs. To bad Obama probably won’t look at this school…

Yes, yes Obama did. Plenty of examples:

7 Top Stories of 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/education/obama-meets-with-college-leaders-on-rising-costs.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=college%20leaders%20obama&st=cse

WGU Indiana Reaches Enrollment Milestone - Newsroom - Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick

Like you, I got my first Bachelors at a large B&M university nearly a decade ago. I'm now in my 30's and priorities have changed so traditional b&m model doesn't quite work anymore. There are millions out there like me that could benefit from WGU's model, and then there are perhaps a few hundreds or thousands who, like I said in my earlier post to the OP, would never accept any online schooling. It's their loss, really.

erpadmin

Everyone wrote: »

I'm not a Networking person, or a CCanything, and even I can answer those.

Ummm...ditto.

In fact, I have to know something about NAT because PeopleSoft depends on that working.......(my job would be useless if you had to be on campus to pay tuition instead of being at your house.......... ) You can't call yourself an IT person and not reasonably discuss what NAT is or does. (Woe to the one who challenges that.....lol.)

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

I think WGU could be one of the answers to the rising college costs. To bad Obama probably won’t look at this school…

Google "Arne Duncan" and "WGU."

Also, the Bob Mendanhall (WGU's president) was at Obama's roundtable on Higher Education. You "best believe" Obama has looked at this school.

joshmadakor

Many people posting in that article certainly are being ridiculous. Erp hit the nail on the head