Talk:Western Governors University
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I duplicated the entry, as I searched on "Western Governor's University" and recieved no hits. I deleted my entry, and added the content to this entry. Nobuddy —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 15:32, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
Wikipedia is not an appropriate place to list all the degrees a school offers. The school's web site and marketing materials are the place for that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Collins_College for another comment on this. --Utahredrock 14:56, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
The actual date of NCATE accreditation came at their fall meeting on October 21 or 22nd. The NCATE press release is dated 10/31 refering to that decision made over a week earlier. The WGU press release came out in early November, after NCATE's. --Utahredrock 18:24, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Here are my recommendations for this article. First, check the establishment date indicated on the main page. I believe that the collaboration was begun sometime in 1995 though I can't find a date right now. This shows one reference for my suggestion of a 1995 creation date, "http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.2/news/briefs/wgu.htm".
Secondly, while it might seem marketing related, the kind and type of instruction/educational methods used need to be discussed in some detail because as these external sources show, WGU follows a competancy-based model as opposed to the traditional teacher-learner model: "http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-22.dir/22a02101.htm" "http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-22.dir/wgu.htm" "http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/innovator/2003/0306.html"
This is important in that WGU is the only university in the US at this time following the competancy model to be regionally accredited.
Finally, the author of this article seems to be focused on the collaboration across political lines which is an important aspect to be considered, however to the general reader this may come across in a slightly pedantic vein but is instead intended to show the broad governmental support in addition to the accreditation and business acceptance support functions comprising civic responsibility with regards to a new college or university.
Jacob M Metro
[edit] Opinions moved here from the article
The above statement on accreditation is not true. Boise State University's graduate program in Educational Technology went online in 1999 and was immediately accredited by NCATE, and remains NCATE-accredited. --Jerry Foster, Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University.
To take nothing away from Boise State University's graduate program in Educational Technology, who may have been the first “online program” to receive NCATE accreditation, it is still basically, an extension of a "traditional brick and mortar" school, whereas, there is nothing "brick and mortar" about WGU, except they have students. The students in Boise State's program are still required to take classes (through Blackboard)"In Educational Technology at Boise State, you’ll take courses Boise State website)”, unlike at WGU which is totally competency based. At WGU, there are no "classes" to take. There are however, stringent objectives aligned to state and national standards (that must be met with at least a "B" or they do not pass). WGU graduates must carry at least a "B" in every domain, or they do not graduate. There are no graduates from WGU that just made it through by the skin of their teeth with a "D". However, WGU not only received NCATE accreditation in their Educational Technology program, they received it (and four regional accreditations as well, “the Inter-Regional Accrediting Committee — comprised of representatives from four regional accrediting commissions. In February 2003, the committee awarded WGU accreditation in all four regions, an extraordinary recognition that had never before nor since occurred (WGU website).”), for their entire Teachers College, (the only online provider of teacher education) Masters Programs, and IT programs. Additionally, they are the only online competency based program in which 36 states automatically agree to license the graduates to teach, the other states allow WGU Teachers College graduates to obtain their licensure from the state of Utah, (or one of the other 36 states) and will then accept them for reciprocal licensing. I think, for a school that has been in existence less than ten years, this is a pretty impressive record and accomplishment. Naomi Richmond WGU student (Graduate fall 2007, student teacher fall 2007) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by PurpleRain (talk • contribs) 15:06, 26 April 2007 (UTC).
I have to disagree about the lack of "classes" at WGU. WGU ABSOLUTELY has classes. Each term is composed of approximately SIX classes, which are CALLED classes and ARE classes. For example, the first class usually taken in the K-8 certification program is "Schools and Society." Further classes cover subjects such as Classroom Management, Testing, and Diversity. To say that they don't have classes is similar to their recruitment methods of stressing "competency-based" education-- which means passing a class! (True competency in any subject is demonstrated through performance, not written papers. WGU does NOT grade performance in early terms.)
Where "classes" are concerned, WGU is NO different from any other online university, just a lot more cumbersome to use because the Academic Action Plan is located on the WGU website and the course materials are located on up to four additional websites while the actual assignments are located on the Taskstream website.
Additionally, don't put too much faith in the demand that every student absolutely must pass with a "B" average. This is a flat out guarantee of grade inflation. Because of WGU's cumbersome assignment delivery system that forces students to turn in "something" so they can find out where they might have gone wrong, very little student experimentation is allowed or encouraged. I would rather earn a "D" and learn something than get an "A" by parroting back some approved research that advances my knowledge not a bit-- and of course this leads to the all-important question of whether you're in school to learn, or to get the degree. 152.121.19.21 (talk) 20:32, 5 January 2008 (UTC) (Coach_Wade@hotmail.com)
[edit] Personal experiences
I've been meaning to create a Wiki account for a while now, but haven't had the time. Please excuse this "anonymous" posting.
I am a current student with WGU. While I have sailed through my first term, I'm absolutely disgusted by the WGU format and would like to present some of the factual situations I have encountered: highly disorganized program requirements, bald-faced lies about completion dates and pricing information, poor and inappropriate materials, etc.
The problem is that these personal experiences, while valid (at least to me!) have no external references to cite. I think they would fall under the heading of original research.
Here are a couple of the things I've encountered. Not being a Wikipedia writer, I'll let someone else assist with the proper inclusion into the article.
1) Disorganized program requirements - I am enrolled in the K-8 teaching certification program. Despite the name, student teaching is only allowed and accepted in a 1st-5th grade classroom. Additionally, the syllabi are absolutely worthless. The school uses two different web sites, and the assignments are contained in one called "Taskstream." The Syllabi are almost NEVER accurate when compared with Taskstream. Assignments are out of order, materials are incorrectly listed, etc.
2) Unethical behavior - I enrolled at WGU because I was assured, over and over again by their enrollment counselors, that enrollement in June of 2007 meant student teaching by the fall of 2008. This was patently false. Come to find out, after they have cashed my checks, there is no physical way to complete the student teaching prerequisites early enough to student teach in that time frame. (Which means that a student enrolling in June of 2007 is not employable until the FALL of 2009!) WGU allows open enrollement; you can begin taking classes at any time. However they ONLY allow their student teaching cohort twice yearly, in September and January, and all prerequisites must be completed months in advance. Unless you start at specific times, you either have to pay for terms you're not attending school, or rush yourself at twice the full time rate in order to stay on pace.
Furthermore, at the midpoint of the program a sudden requirement for student teaching arose: insurance. Payable to the NEA, who subsidises WGU (kickbacks, anyone?) this insurance is not necessary for substitute teachers, who are unsupervised within the classroom, nor is it a requirement in any way for the state of Washington-- not for certification and not for training purposes-- but suddenly is a requirement of the COLLEGE for enrollement in the SUPERVISED teaching program?
And lastly, I informed the WGU enrollement counselors on no fewer than three occasions that the military Tuition Assistance cap was $250/credit. They assured me that each term would be well under that in price. I received a nasty shock after enrollement when I discovered that they had, to be blunt, lied to me. The courses were $310/credit, leaving me to come up with some $500 out of my own pocket. Adding into that an additional $586 for books, most of which were unused (see point three) and out of pocket expenses for the first term were more than a grand.
3) Poor and inappropriate materials - WGU advised purchasing books from Amazon.com. Almost all of the books they recommended had a rating of two stars or less. One notable title was described by a student at another university as, "So bad my professor dropped it by week three of the course." Moreover, these materials were completely unnecessary. Almost all research necessary to accomplish the assignments required for the first term of instruction is available online. Precious little comes from the poorly selected textbooks, some of which I didn't even open. Only one textbook, "Educational Psychology" by Slavin was in any way useful during the term.
Furthermore, the Taskstream website is VERY poorly organized and difficult to use. The enormously cumbersome delivery system results in students wasting a great deal of time trying to locate assignment requirements. The lack of professors also wastes student time. Students must complete assignments and upload them to a grader, who then after a four day wait informs the student whether they passed or failed. If it's a fail, the student must redo the assignment, further wasting his time.
I wish to point out that I'm not a disgruntled student who couldn't hack it. I currently hold two degrees, both from other fully accredited online universities. Like all WGU students, I hold an average of "B" or better because of their cumbersome "keep doing it over until it's right" grading system. I completed my first term speedily and without difficulty as far as the course material goes-- my problems were the issues listed above.
Additionally, I have been a military instructor for the past seven years and functioned as a curriculum developer for much of that time. I am intimately familiar with course development, and these programs are NOT well put together. Example: in the second course of the program, titled "Schools and Society," after the student has already passed an online entrance exam and attended a preliminary "how to use our stuff" course that is also online, the student must "demonstrate competency with the mouse and keyboard." In the third assignment.
I don't know how much of these personal experiences can be added to a Wiki article, but I feel that student experiences are particularly relevant to any article about a school or program of study. I respectfully request that "older and wiser" Wikipedia heads help me out on this one.
Thank you! Since I don't have a Wiki account yet, you can contact me at Coach_Wade@hotmail.com if you need to discuss this, or of course discuss it here. 152.121.19.13 (talk) 20:18, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:WGU logo.png
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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:53, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
