Dear Sam
I got more hate mail from a supporter of WGU. I posted it as a comment but wanted to post it here for two reasons.
First, I see the problem getting worse. The investigations for the for profits are very worrisome. This inline industry refuses to publish even minimal statistics about the ability of its graduates to get jobs.
WGU is no different from any of the for profits except that rather than the company making taxable money, WGU pays its executives very large salaries.
Second,as usual, I suspect the author is anonymous. So, I will copy this post to him as an email and see if he is “real.” My bet is that the real author is some flack at WGU and I will never get a replay. Here is the missive: .
I find it interesting that the author has written such an inflammatory piece. So much of what is said is related to how there are no credentials of WGU’s evaluators and course mentors. Did he request information from the school? Good Journalists usually indicate that they made a direct request to ___ on ____ and the request had been ignored as of print date. A quick search of the WGU website’s available jobs, reveals that the University requires a minimum of a Masters degree in that field, and most often a PhD or EdD for its positions as course mentors and graders. These positions are equivalent to instructor positions at other schools. In addition to the educational requirements, the course mentors and evaluators are required to have at least three years experience in the field.
The comment regarding the graders is almost laughable. How often do traditional university instructors use students to grade papers?Just an observation, but with an article about being able to write listed above, perhaps the writer of the piece should edit his comments so that they are at least legible.
Just to do a minimal amount of fact checking,
“there are no credentials of WGU’s evaluators and course mentors.” This is, sadly almost correct. WGU brags about not using qualified faculty and ana exmaination of the few faculty they have as advisers shows very few people with recognizable expertise in the subjects WGU offers.
“Good Journalists usually indicate that they made a direct request” read the whole long thread. WGU refuses to respond.
“the course mentors and evaluators are required to have at least three years experience in the field.” actually quite the opposite . WGU does not employ experts as faculty and insists that is mentors NOT teach subject matter but coach students in how to use WGU’s products.
“The comment regarding the graders is almost laughable. How often do traditional university instructors use students to grade papers?” There is a HUGE difference between using a graduate student to grade papers and using someone with no knowledge of the subject matter. Also grad student graders are supervised by something WGU does not even have ..faculty!
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