The-Ave.US

This came in as a comment on a previous WGU post. 

“Simple research would prevent false allegations.”

The author comments:

I don’t even know where to start. Lets first start with the faculty that you mention numerous times in your attack on WGU. WGU hires course mentors that serve as faculty. Every mentor I have met has a Masters degree or higher in their field. In order to be a mentor with WGU they must have a Masters or higher. A large number I have worked with have a PHD.

WGU is very clear, its “mentors” are not intended to function as faculty.  They are hired as coaches to help WGU students with the stress, details, and mechanics of using the online materials.  Fro what I have read and been told, no courses are “taught” by mentors and mentors are not expected to have the expertise in subject matter to teach course materials.

As for the idea of a “Masters degree or higher in their field,” Masters degrees makes sense for faculty in high schools and for some faculty at community colleges.  In most fields, however, the minimum degree for university faculty is a Ph.D.  Moreover, if you look at the requirements you at the ads WGU places, it is not usually looking for Masters degree(s) in the subject matter being taught, rather it wants a masters degree in something like on line education.

Next evaluation. All tasks are evaluated by task stream. These people are hired by WGU and must have a Masters in the field they are evaluating as well as at least 3 years working in the field.

Same comments as above.  As a simple test, look at their site ans see if you can find a list of the qualifications people teaching chemistry, writing, or computer science have in those fields.

As far as the competency based education. Yes you have “tasks” and assessments that must be completed to prove competency. This is no different than taking a 16 week course at a brick and mortar school where you have assigned homework and a final at the end of the class. The difference is you can work at your own pace as opposed to the pace of the professor. WGU classes have e-books, webinars, quizzes, assignments, and finals. Instead of sitting through a class for 16 weeks students can work as slow or as fast as they want.

As used by WGU, “competency” is a synonym for pass fail.  There are no grades given.

The comments about “bricks and mortar” is PR speak.  There are many schools with better credentials than WGU that offer credit for work done as an intern or knowledge gained in the real world.  I think we need more of that, but do not see why anyone would accept WGU’s credentials just because they do nto also offer classes on a site taught by expert faculty. 

  The author offers links you can read for yourself below.

If you look at the WGU website and look at the Employment at WGU link it tells you the requirements for employment for each position.

Link for Faculty explanation
http://www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/wgu_faculty

PLEASE LOOK .. there is even a claim to have about a 1000 full time faculty. However, as far as I can find there are no links where one can find the names and credentials of any of these experts.  There are some names for what WGU calls “Program Faculty” but these people do not actually teach and the last time I looked most of them had credentials that would not get them a job at any of our community colleges much less the states colleges or universities.  Just for fun take a look at this job description for an IT professional in the very demanding area of Health Informatics.  So you see a degree requirement there specific for this field?  Look at the skills the job requires.  How many skilled health informatics’ folks would take such a job?

I am not going to comment on accreditation other than to note that it is a VERY weak process that serve only to guarantee a minimal level of quality.  Do you know this same agency accredits beauty schools? Certainly, no potential student would want t attend any school that was not accredited. 

I am more disturbed by a lack of data on the site about completion rates and attainment of jobs.  Scandals about for profit schools (all also “accredited”) have shown that many of these school have terrible records for  students (often using government funds) getting jobs.  WGU makes a big deal about being a “non profit” while paying its founder a huge salary and allowing him to work as a board member on companies that sell products, e.g. coursewares, to WGU.  Of ocurse this practice would be illegal if WGU were truly a state school.

What WGU offers instead of jobs data (or has done until now) is scary .  They tout anecdotal data on how happy their grads  in jobs are or how pleased employers are.  Given how competitive the job market is today, I find it very difficult to imagine an employer hiring a WGU IT grad over one with her degree for Bellevue College. The ads seem more appropriate for a late night infomercial from Hocus Pocus School of Art, then for anything I would  send a friend to.

Link for Regional Accreditation
http://www.nwccu.org/Directory%20of%20Inst/State%20Map/Utah/Utah.htm

Link for CCNE Accreditation
http://directory.ccnecommunity.org/reports/rptAccreditedPrograms_New.asp?state=UT&sFullName=Utah

Link on WGU website about accreditation
http://www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/accreditation

I wish I could recommend WGU and have several times requested better information.  I would especially like to hear about  value for some students in WGU who come there from the working world.  For example, there are folks who achieve a very high level of knowledge from working in the real world.  Whether these folks actually learn anything at WGU, having an easy way to get a degree to validate real world expertise could be a good thing, again if WGU could show that it has achieved credibility in the form of employment data.