What is WGU like?

[nykorn]

I'm in an Education Master's and just started this month.

- Info is super condensed and US-centric, not global. You get text, explanatory videos with typically 2-6min of content each, worksheets, ungraded quizzes. Most reading is one paragraph per historical topic/place/event - glancing at Wikipedia will give you more memorable info in those cases, and that info is unlikely to get tested on. However WGU's explanations of key points like famous psychological concepts, which is what you really get tested on, are much better explained than anything you find on Google or Wikipedia because WGU gives real life examples you'd actually encounter in typical kid behavior.

- Around 1/5th or less of the reading and assignments I had in the same Master's subject at another school, and WGU's assignments are more relevant.

- Homework is usually APPLYING the concepts learned. Such as "Interview someone in the field, explain how what they said does or doesn't align with (concept just learnt)."

- Both 2 and 4 CPU classes can be done in 1-2 days per class, if you work on them all day. 4 CPUs doesn't necessarily mean more reading. The difference for me so far is 4 CPU classes require doing the practice worksheets to really get the concepts in your head, as there may be a lot of different new terms with similar names etc.

- In my Master's there's a lot of courses with 3 assignments or 2 assignments and a final exam.

- You can do multiple classes at once without needing to ask permission. However they do tell you that statistically, people who do one at a time have better finish rates.

- If your turn-in needs revisions, they will tell you only one item to fix. So you won't know if two are wrong until you revise the one they did tell you and turn it back in. I believe that's a motivational tactic because youbwon't put it off if all you need is to fix one single thing.

- Ungraded quizzes sometimes test on material not taught until a few paragraphs later or the next "page". Frustrating but not a big deal, I just ignore that question or google it.

- Staff is great, fantastic customer service, courses feel pretty easy, I'm loving how motivating it is to finish a course in just 2 days. Definitely possible to do 20+ courses in 6 months if you don't have a full time job.

[origamishuttle]

- If your turn-in needs revisions, they will tell you only one item to fix. So you won't know if two are wrong until you revise the one they did tell you and turn it back in. I believe that's a motivational tactic because youbwon't put it off if all you need is to fix one single thing.

The evaluators can make mistakes, get caught up on insignificant things, or incorrectly add requirements. What they should not do is mark any section of a performance assessment (PA) as less than competent when it's already been evaluated as competent or above by the previous evaluator. Every time a PA is resubmitted, I add a note in the submission form explaining what was changed and that all other sections were previously evaluated as competent. I also recommend highlighting the changes within the PA so they can easily find the update and focus only on that section.