Ed. I recommend an article on Western Governor’s University at the Inside Higher Education website.
What worries me, however, is that the author, Steve Kolowich, focuses on the challenge to WGU from teachers and educators. These are people who his readers may see as having a personal interest in opposing WGU.
The Kolowich article never gets around to investigating WGU’s claims to be successful other than its demonstrable ability ot enroll students and collect money. As reviewed in previous posts on The AVE, WGU metrics for success are based on undefined terms, ,jargon and newspeak that may have no real meaning. These metrics are not even defined in the theis the WGU president used to justify his own PhD.
What the thesis and other WGU documents claim is to achieve success by four measures:
a. replacing graduation requirements with tests of “competency.” “Competency: exams may be taken whenever a student is ready and may measure achievements made outside of an formal education.
b. replacing faculty, i.e. people with expertise in subject matter, with “mentors” who advise students how to use educational software.
c. replacing physical facilities with a “virtual campus.”
d. functioning as a “non profit” to cut costs.
I think Mr. Kolowich should have read Robert Mendenhall’s thesis before writing this article. Mendenhall is the founder and President of WGU and was given his PhD based apparently on the claim that WGU is a success. Since I have read the thesis, let me try to define the terms Mendenhall uses and address other issues Mr. Kolowich left unexamined.
1. What is “competency?”
This term appears in Dr. Mendenhall’s thesis, but like much else that is in the thesis, the term is never defined nor are objective criteria offered to describe how the WGU model determines its ability to promotes “competency.”
The best I could do was look to see how WGU practices “competency.” WGU awards competency when a student passes an exam or a set of exams someone decides defines an area of “competency.” Dr. Mendheall falsely implies that “traditional” schools will not give credit for competency a student has gained outside of formal course work.
WGU’s definition of competency does not include competitive grades. Nor do “mentors” have subject matter expertise to help a student evaluate her own progress. The “mentor” serves only to coach a student on how to pass the exam. Students who request help with subject matter are told to use some other resource.
In effect, this turns education onto a pass fail system with an incentive to WGU to pass students irrespective of how much the students know. I suspect mentors are rewarded for the number of students passing these exams.
2. WGU claims to have “700 faculty.”
I wish you good luck in identifying who these people are. There is no public list and no evidence that these faculty have any relevant qualifications.
This lack of expertise on the part of “mentors” is especially worrisome in regard to claims by WGU to train students in writing, biology, math, and computer sciences.
3. Who determines WGU course content?
As an “accredited” school, WGU claims to have faculty councils responsible for deciding what is required to be “competent” in 4 areas. These areas are K-12 education, nursing, business, and computer science.
Unlike the rest of the “700 faculty” the members of these councils are listed on the WGU site. However, WGU does not reveal these faculty’s credentials other than academic titles. I researched some of these credentials and recommend that Mr. Kolowich and others do the same. I was especially disturbed to find that the “liberal arts” council lacked faculty with expertise in the areas of “competency” WGU certifies for high school teachers.
4. How does WGU deal with areas of education that require personal contact? WGU claims NOT to develop its own couses but to administer materials it gets from assorted suppliers of self teaching educational coursewares. Obviously such an aporoach would ot work iof you were training a surgeion, podiatrist, car mechanic, or social worker. To get around this problem WGU claims to focus on 4 specific forms of professional education:
a. elementary education. This is regulated by law in most states and WGU outsources this byt arranging for WGU students to work as aides in elementary schools. WGU does not identify the credentials of its “faculty” who watch over this teaching experience.
b. high school science. As above, WG outsources classroom teaching. WGU, however, does not provide lab experiences. Instead it sends out do-it-yourself lab kits. WGU apparently does not have faculty competent to teach labs.
c. computer science. WGU’s courses in comp sci. appear to be standard certificates offered by Microsoft and others. It does not offer the sorts of problem solving instruction needed to get a job.
d. nursing. Like comp sci, WGU nursing does not offer hands on training. Moreover, as with high school science, WGU lacks faculty needed to teach biology or health. In effect this is a business degree for nurses.
e. business. WGU’s online offerings are in basic skills in math and terminology. Again, the lack of faculty to oversee the online course work and the lack of personal contact make it hard to imagine that a WGU degree prepares anyone to work with other people.
5. WGU claims to be “non profit.” What is the WGU financial model?
WGU does not publish a balance sheet. While WGU must be non profit for the IRS, it does pay VERY high salaries .. esp. to Mendenhall. he gets $700,000. It also pays large fees to profit making companies that provide it with services. The ties between Mr. Mendenhall and those companies should be, but are not, a matter for public review.
6. Are WGU’s “degrees” valid?
While calling itself a “University,” WGU’s claims are suspect .. to say the least. Mr. Kolowich gice numbers claiming that have about a 20% graduation rate. I do not know where he got that number because WGU never responded to my requests for that number. Nor do we know if the degress WGU students get are accepted by other schools and employers. All WGU offers is data purporting to show that its graduates are satisfied.
7. Does a WGU education help its students get jobs?
I have asked this several times and can not get answers.