WGU Course Schedules Question - Certifications

Just some quick questions and input from anyone that has attended WGU in regards to how their online learning is structured When taking courses, are you required to follow a certain order, i.e., progress step 1 to step 2, etc, or; can you simply move to a later class and maybe skip general educational requirements?

The reason I ask is that I already have a BS degree and I am not really interested in getting a second degree as much as the certifications. It seems from what I have read on here as well as on the WGU website, that while progressing through their program you will earn your certifications and that is what caught my interest.

Overall it seems a good trade-off for the learning and the earned certifications versus cost to do so individually. If anyone has any other programs they would recommend for certifications, please feel free to share as I would be grateful for any information. I am interested in all the certifications except Microsoft.

All comments welcome.

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Comments

Psoasman

All of the courses have a COS or course of study, which is designed to help you learn the material and pass the course. The order you take classes can vary. Most people seem to start with what their mentor recommends and once you've proven yourself, there is more flexibility.

Is your B.S. in IT? If so, why not pick one of the M.S. degrees? If you are interested in non-microsoft certs, all the B.S. degrees have quite a few microsoft certs, with the security having the fewest at 5 MTA certs.

If you aren't really interested in the degree, then I'd go the self-study route. Even though you get certs, there are the administrative considerations at WGU. Example: if you fail the first cert exam, you must wait 2 weeks to retry and work with the mentor / course mentor.

ltj8765

Thanks Psoasman for the response and the information. My degree was actually a dual degree in CIS/CS and I graduated in 1994 before IT tracks came into the curriculum.

I do like the Masters degree route and primarily I am interested in the Security / Assurance track. The problem is that they state you must have X numbers of years experience in IT security as well as IT security certifications...which I have none. Since I wrote the original message yesterday I have learned from other posts about TestOut and some of the other online training sites for certifications, so maybe that might be the better way to go?

Primarily I am at a point in my career where I am less hands on and more management, process, operations type work. Where I am looking to move in my career is to the US government sector as there are many many good IT positions that are open. With the government, certifications are key on most of the IT positions and many actually require the certifications for consideration. Thus, getting the certifications are liked getting my ticked punched in order to gain an advantage for government employment.

Don't get me wrong though...I am not wanting to get certified just to get certified

I really want the certifications as I really enjoy working in the IT field and I love doing system engineering and planning. Some of the certifications like the CCNA, CompTIA Sec+, etc., will be very helpful! The issue is the most efficient way to achieve these certifications in the least amount of time. I do not think self study is a good route for me as I do much better in online type training?

Psoasman

You might consider the MBA IT management or the M.S. - Network management, if you are moving more towards management. Another option may be self-study for some of the security certs. Lots of good information in those sections.

phonetic.man

Psoasman wrote: »

You might consider the MBA IT management or the M.S. - Network management, if you are moving more towards management. Another option may be self-study for some of the security certs. Lots of good information in those sections.

With your existing degree, even though it is from early/mid 90's with little/less "IT", I like Psoasman's advice. Self study for certs that you want and can use. Then once you have a few you like, if you still are thinking about a degree, go for a graduate degree. One graduate level degree is worth several bachelor level degrees in my book.

Due to family life I will be sticking with self study for the next 3-4 years (I will be finishing my BS:IT soon). After that, I will be looking very hard at a graduate program of some sort.

demonfurbie

Psoasman wrote: »

You might consider the MBA IT management or the M.S. - Network management, if you are moving more towards management. Another option may be self-study for some of the security certs. Lots of good information in those sections.

im currently in the network management degree ... and ill let you know its not as technical as the sec masters but it is very management/people theory based which if you ask me is slightly better suited for you than the sec degree for the simple fact you already do it, then once ya get that you can get CISSP (not in the sec masters program)

i think your at the point where youll need some higher end certs other than the comptia certs

charlemagne

Psoasman wrote: »

All of the courses have a COS or course of study, which is designed to help you learn the material and pass the course. The order you take classes can vary. Most people seem to start with what their mentor recommends and once you've proven yourself, there is more flexibility.

Is your B.S. in IT? If so, why not pick one of the M.S. degrees? If you are interested in non-microsoft certs, all the B.S. degrees have quite a few microsoft certs, with the security having the fewest at 5 MTA certs.

If you aren't really interested in the degree, then I'd go the self-study route. Even though you get certs, there are the administrative considerations at WGU. Example: if you fail the first cert exam, you must wait 2 weeks to retry and work with the mentor / course mentor.

The BS in Health Informatics requires online a single Microsoft certification and that is something akin to "Database Fundamentals." Good degree. But, you might not be interested. Just pointing out that not every BS that's IT related requires a lot of Microsoft certifications.

ltj8765

Thanks everyone for the replies and it has given me a lot to consider!! Based on everything I have read and the direction I am moving, the MBA IT track would probably be best. I am still not sure if I want to take on that much study time as I do not know what my schedule will be like over the next year or so? It will take some time and some more thinking!!

The other certification that I am really keen on getting is the RCDD certification from BICSI. That is often times an overlooked cert but it is a very good one to have..at least for my type of business!!

Roland Biggerstaff

I'm looking at WGU, I don't have a degree and most of my certs are older. can you work on two degree paths at the same time and what is normally the first Cert (and how soon do you start on it after your enroll) I am looking at WGU for the BS IT security.
Thanks,

earweed

Roland Biggerstaff wrote: »

I'm looking at WGU, I don't have a degree and most of my certs are older. can you work on two degree paths at the same time and what is normally the first Cert (and how soon do you start on it after your enroll) I am looking at WGU for the BS IT security.
Thanks,

The first cert is usually the CIW Associates and last time I checked,for some reason, no advanced cert qualifies you not to take it (I took mine my first term and took test 2 weeks after starting classes). It's is an inch thick and a mile wide covering everything from finding the power button on a PC to networking, databases, and e-commerce as well as a little HTML. If your certs are older you may have to retake them all but if You enter the continuing education program in CompTIA the old CompTIA certs count towards admission requirements (required to have 2 certs, I believe) as CompTIA certs are no longer lifetime (your certs are lifetime but you'll have to retake them for WGU anyway) and once entering cont edu program you have to either get CEU credits or retake CompTIA certs.
You need to check out the sticky thread as I believe it will help you access everything like admission requirements and what certs you get as well as if what you have will let you not have to take certain classes.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/51715-western-governors-university-questions-answers-threads-related-wgu.html

Nemowolf

Roland Biggerstaff wrote: »

I'm looking at WGU, I don't have a degree and most of my certs are older. can you work on two degree paths at the same time and what is normally the first Cert (and how soon do you start on it after your enroll) I am looking at WGU for the BS IT security.
Thanks,

You can only take one program at a time and the first cert as EarWeed mentioned is the CIW Internet Web Foundations cert.

They will only take an active certification, lifetime or not, that was passed within the last five years. If your certifications are older than that, you will need to retake the exams at their current level.