WGU MBA Experience?

[Toastmaster]

Sorry for what is probably the 10,776th post about WGU and their MBA program.    Figured I'd get that out of the way haha!

Can anybody describe the experience of what it's like to attend WGU?  And to attend their MBA program?

Are the courses paper intensive?  If so, are we talking 5 pages?  10 pages?  More?  

Lots of case study reviews?

I know that terms are 6 months each....I "think" that you can complete as many classes as possible in those terms.  Is that correct?

Is there a way to view their coursework and needed books in advance? (Syllabus, etc)

Any other hints, tips or tricks?

THANK YOU.

[Merlin]

Can anybody describe the experience of what it's like to attend WGU?  And to attend their MBA program?

There is a stickied post at the top of this forum which goes into a lot of detail around how classes work at WGU. But I'll repeat a bit of what I wrote there for your review...

The teaching style is a combination of reading textbook materials, lectures (which they call cohorts), and one-on-one meetings with course instructors. You are encouraged to participate in the live cohorts and set up meetings with your instructors for more personalized instruction and to work through issues. However, it is not required. You are free to watch pre-recorded cohort lectures or use third party resources like Youtube or LinkedIn Learning to supplement the provided materials. Also, the instructors don't grade your papers or exams; papers are graded by a separate team of evaluators while exams are multiple choice and are graded automatically by the exam system itself.

Are the courses paper intensive?  If so, are we talking 5 pages?  10 pages?  More?  

Lots of case study reviews?

The MBA program has 4 courses that require exams, 6 courses that require papers, projects, or presentations, and 1 course that requires both. Though it also depends on which version of the MBA you're taking. I did the IT Management MBA, which has the requirements I listed above. Someone taking the general MBA or the Healthcare Management MBA may have slightly different requirements.

As for paper length, I'll take some excerpts from what that sticky post again here...

It varies by course but papers are typically in the 3-5 page length. Some papers require a minimum number of cited references while others do not. If you don't use any external references you don't need any citations, but they do use plagiarism scanners as part of scoring papers and they can be picky about this. Projects usually include longer papers and will typically require research and problem-solving. Presentations vary a lot, but luckily they are uncommon. The presentation I did for my MBA capstone was about 30 minutes, but from what I gather, most of the undergrad presentations are 10 minutes or less.

As for case studies, that will also depend on the program. The capstone requires participating in a business simulation instead of case study reviews. My IT Project Management and IT Strategic Solutions courses required several case study analyses and recommendations to be made. The rest of the courses focused more on problem-solving and/or research.

I know that terms are 6 months each....I "think" that you can complete as many classes as possible in those terms.  Is that correct?

Yes, regardless of degree program (with a few exceptions in the teaching college) you can complete as many courses per term as you are able to. There is only a minimum requirement, not a maximum.

Is there a way to view their coursework and needed books in advance? (Syllabus, etc)

No. WGU used to allow you to get up to a 15-day head start on the course material once you completed your orientation course, but they don't do that anymore.

Also, be careful of looking for old course material online. Most courses are updated at least annually, so if you manage to find what was being used by another student, you may find it has changed by the time you start a specific course.

Not to mention, it is technically a violation of the academic integrity agreement with WGU for anyone to share any WGU provided materials. I just recently saw some posts where a student was kicked out of the school (right before starting his capstone) and many of his courses were voided after the school discovered he had shared some of his course information online (which I believe included completed papers as well). In the past they have revoked degrees after being awarded as well. They come down pretty hard on that stuff.

It is perfectly fine to use YouTube, Khan Academy, and other resources to familiarize yourself with the subject matter of each course in advance though. That is generally a great way to get ahead.

Any other hints, tips or tricks?

If you want to finish within a single term you will need to give up all your spare time. When I was working on my MBA, I was putting in 40-60 hours a week into my studies and I completed in 7 months (still one term due to extension). Granted, I completed all courses except for the capstone in about 4 months, the rest was based on the old capstone and having a team that moved a lot more slowly than I originally wanted. But you need to consider that things could go sideways. They won't let you sign up for the capstone unless you have at least 2 months left in your term anyway (or they used to under the old capstone) so that is something to consider.

For courses with PAs (papers, projects. presentations) be sure to download the rubric and break the paper into sections based on the rubric categories. Then complete each section based on exactly what is required by the rubric. Doing a bit extra can be helpful to pad your score, but don't try to be fancy or go off on tangents as it will just confuse the evaluators.

For courses with OA's (exams) I recommend skimming through all the provided course materials, watching the video cohorts, and reviewing the notes provided by the instructors before taking any pre-assessments. Then, once you feel confident to take the final exam, use the Pre-A to help you narrow in on areas you still need work. Some people suggest taking the Pre-A's first and using them to study, but I find that to be a terrible idea since the Pre-A can be used to help determine when you're ready to take the final exam. You can take them multiple times but they don't change, so once you've seen them they are useless for testing purposes. Not to mention that the Pre-A's don't always align with the OA exam 1 for 1, so if you only study what you find in the pre-A, you may be missing stuff that will cause you to fail.

Try not to ever fail an OA exam if you want to accelerate. If you fail, the course instructors are obligated to put you on a special plan that requires a ton of extra work that will slow you way down. So think about what I said above about OA's. No to mention, you can only repeat an OA exam twice for free, after that they charge you. You only get a maximum of 4 attempts (5 with approval from the dean of the school) to retake an exam. If you fail the last one, you're done with that degree since you won't be able to graduate since there are no replacement course options.

Do a quick search on the forum and you'll find plenty of other tips and recommendations.

[Toastmaster]

Can anybody describe the experience of what it's like to attend WGU?  And to attend their MBA program?

There is a stickied post at the top of this forum which goes into a lot of detail around how classes work at WGU. But I'll repeat a bit of what I wrote there for your review...

The teaching style is a combination of reading textbook materials, lectures (which they call cohorts), and one-on-one meetings with course instructors. You are encouraged to participate in the live cohorts and set up meetings with your instructors for more personalized instruction and to work through issues. However, it is not required. You are free to watch pre-recorded cohort lectures or use third party resources like Youtube or LinkedIn Learning to supplement the provided materials. Also, the instructors don't grade your papers or exams; papers are graded by a separate team of evaluators while exams are multiple choice and are graded automatically by the exam system itself.

Are the courses paper intensive?  If so, are we talking 5 pages?  10 pages?  More?  

Lots of case study reviews?

The MBA program has 4 courses that require exams, 6 courses that require papers, projects, or presentations, and 1 course that requires both. Though it also depends on which version of the MBA you're taking. I did the IT Management MBA, which has the requirements I listed above. Someone taking the general MBA or the Healthcare Management MBA may have slightly different requirements.

As for paper length, I'll take some excerpts from what that sticky post again here...

It varies by course but papers are typically in the 3-5 page length. Some papers require a minimum number of cited references while others do not. If you don't use any external references you don't need any citations, but they do use plagiarism scanners as part of scoring papers and they can be picky about this. Projects usually include longer papers and will typically require research and problem-solving. Presentations vary a lot, but luckily they are uncommon. The presentation I did for my MBA capstone was about 30 minutes, but from what I gather, most of the undergrad presentations are 10 minutes or less.

As for case studies, that will also depend on the program. The capstone requires participating in a business simulation instead of case study reviews. My IT Project Management and IT Strategic Solutions courses required several case study analyses and recommendations to be made. The rest of the courses focused more on problem-solving and/or research.

I know that terms are 6 months each....I "think" that you can complete as many classes as possible in those terms.  Is that correct?

Yes, regardless of degree program (with a few exceptions in the teaching college) you can complete as many courses per term as you are able to. There is only a minimum requirement, not a maximum.

Is there a way to view their coursework and needed books in advance? (Syllabus, etc)

No. WGU used to allow you to get up to a 15-day head start on the course material once you completed your orientation course, but they don't do that anymore.

Also, be careful of looking for old course material online. Most courses are updated at least annually, so if you manage to find what was being used by another student, you may find it has changed by the time you start a specific course.

Not to mention, it is technically a violation of the academic integrity agreement with WGU for anyone to share any WGU provided materials. I just recently saw some posts where a student was kicked out of the school (right before starting his capstone) and many of his courses were voided after the school discovered he had shared some of his course information online (which I believe included completed papers as well). In the past they have revoked degrees after being awarded as well. They come down pretty hard on that stuff.

It is perfectly fine to use YouTube, Khan Academy, and other resources to familiarize yourself with the subject matter of each course in advance though. That is generally a great way to get ahead.

Any other hints, tips or tricks?

If you want to finish within a single term you will need to give up all your spare time. When I was working on my MBA, I was putting in 40-60 hours a week into my studies and I completed in 7 months (still one term due to extension). Granted, I completed all courses except for the capstone in about 4 months, the rest was based on the old capstone and having a team that moved a lot more slowly than I originally wanted. But you need to consider that things could go sideways. They won't let you sign up for the capstone unless you have at least 2 months left in your term anyway (or they used to under the old capstone) so that is something to consider.

For courses with PAs (papers, projects. presentations) be sure to download the rubric and break the paper into sections based on the rubric categories. Then complete each section based on exactly what is required by the rubric. Doing a bit extra can be helpful to pad your score, but don't try to be fancy or go off on tangents as it will just confuse the evaluators.

For courses with OA's (exams) I recommend skimming through all the provided course materials, watching the video cohorts, and reviewing the notes provided by the instructors before taking any pre-assessments. Then, once you feel confident to take the final exam, use the Pre-A to help you narrow in on areas you still need work. Some people suggest taking the Pre-A's first and using them to study, but I find that to be a terrible idea since the Pre-A can be used to help determine when you're ready to take the final exam. You can take them multiple times but they don't change, so once you've seen them they are useless for testing purposes. Not to mention that the Pre-A's don't always align with the OA exam 1 for 1, so if you only study what you find in the pre-A, you may be missing stuff that will cause you to fail.

Try not to ever fail an OA exam if you want to accelerate. If you fail, the course instructors are obligated to put you on a special plan that requires a ton of extra work that will slow you way down. So think about what I said above about OA's. No to mention, you can only repeat an OA exam twice for free, after that they charge you. You only get a maximum of 4 attempts (5 with approval from the dean of the school) to retake an exam. If you fail the last one, you're done with that degree since you won't be able to graduate since there are no replacement course options.

Do a quick search on the forum and you'll find plenty of other tips and recommendations.

I just want to say THANK YOU @Merlin!  I mean really, THANK YOU.  I've been reading this, and taking this in.  I am studying your response and taking your advice.  THANK YOU!