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Western Governors University Does It Again

Posted by vida

Just as Western Governors University appeared to be at the pinnacle of excellence in education and service, they impressed us all — again.

This time, WGU decided in favor of no tuition hikes for undergraduate students this school year.

For a private online school that sets records for being among the least expensive universities, their decision is extraordinary. After all, who would blame them if they joined most other colleges and higher education institutions in raising tuition, especially during a sour economy?

But the economy is one reason WGU decided to give students a break. So tuition remains at its current low of under $3,000 for each 6-month term — a great bargain.

Western Governors even has a unique story about its beginnings to match its extraordinary desire to put students first.

The school was born out of a vision implemented by the governors of 19 western states 11 years ago. And today, WGU is "the nation’s largest supplier of math and science teachers in urban school districts", according to Time Magazine’s article, "Go Western, Young Man" . The non-profit online school has also been lauded by NBC Nightly News; and because of WGU’s excellent reputation, its graduates are consistently hired by major employers, including Fortune 500 companies.

Western Governors is the only fully online school to receive NCATE approval for online degrees that prepare potential and current teachers. And WGU bends over backwards to provide generous scholarships to military personnel and their spouses, education students, nursing students and others. The school offers millions of dollars in federal financial aid to eligible students.

As the nation returns to its roots of thrift, it is refreshing to discover that getting the most bang for you bucks can apply to paying for a college education.

And this is definitely true at Western Governors University.

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3 Responses to “Western Governors University Does It Again”

Jamie Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Western Governors University is committed to helping students achieve their dreams for a degree and career success. Affordability is the most important factor in reaching these goals for our students. We are pleased to be able to keep our tuition prices low to accommodate every student that takes part in the WGU experience.
WILTON DUNCAN Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 7:13 am
I have been teaching at the tertiary level of education for the past 10 years at ASA Institute of Business and Computer Technology (Brooklyn, New York). I have plateaued in the position of teaching accounting and economics, and I would like to swerve to secondary education (teaching mathematics, of course) terminable by retirement.

The prerequisites to teach mathematics in high school are: (1)masters degree in mathematics education, (2)state cerfication, and (3)other cognate qualifications. I am more than ready to fulfill the prerequisites, but I am constrained by the exceptions of (1)lack of funds to independently finance a masters degree in mathematics education, (2)default status on my student loans that hinder any forthcoming assistance from federal or state financing sources.(Involuntary payments are being made for the past five years, yet the default flag still remains.), and (3)limited on-line programs that are education-oriented.

May you do me the rather disagreeable favor to offer me a tuition-free masters degree in mathematics education through Western Governers University System. I will make it my selomen pledge to use the mathematics degree to teach in an urbun or rural school where dire needs exist for mathematics teachers. I will also willingly offer my teaching services for your on-line program to satisfy tuition payments.

In the event your immediate system does not make provisons for tution-free course offerings, may you exercise the virtue of neighborliness and help me to at least identify sources from which I may procure nonrefundable financing to pursue the necessary preparations to teach mathematics in high school?

I would be intensely grateful for your help!!!

Thanks deluxe!!!!

Wilton Duncan
Edwards Says:
April 18th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
The WGU teacher credential program is a disgrace and is designed by persons showing incompetence to a degree of criminal fraud and incompetence.

The program consists of four parts
1. The Course of Study - In theory, the course of study is a list of reading and activities that the student should do before each of the tasks

2. The Tasks - are a list of papers to write or tasks to do for a course based on the course of study.

3. The Graders - The tasks are emailed to a person who passes it or send it back to redo.

4. The Course Mentor - is a person that students in a course can email or call on the phone to ask questions or help on assignments.

In practice the relationship between these four parts is tenuous at best. The Task instructions are usually so vague as to open to wide interpretation and often requires things which are in no way part of the COS, and the COS contains little that relates to the Tasks.
The graders often demand tasks be redone to include material that is not in the task instructions or the course of study and fail to adequately explain the reasons for the redo. Asking aid from the course mentors is difficult because the same question must be asked three or four times before a useful answer is given. Most often the course mentor will simply repeat the task instructions or give a useless answer that does not address the question.
The impression given is that the course of study was designed by a person who had never read the task instructions or the reverse is true. The same can be said of the task graders who seem to never have read the task instructions or feel free to ignore them.
The course work in general consists 95% of material that has no use in the classroom or inane theories that have no relation to reality but this is common among teacher credential programs. Any program has room for improvement but it is shocking that this total lack of coordination between the four parts would happen in the first place.
If a contractor were to build a house with a foundation so fundamentally flawed then he would not only loose his license but be subject to criminal prosecution. These are not simply mistakes but a program that was designed from the foundation up, with total incompetence that rises to the level of morally criminal fraud.

A minimum of common sense would demand that the tasks written based on the course of study or vice versa and the graders and course mentors completely review the task instructions and course of study.

Tuition is 3000 dollars a term regardless of how many classes you take and a term is six months. You can finish as many courses you are able to in this time period without extra costs. My plan at the start was to just zip through the courses and get done in a year or a year and a half at most but my progress was actually very slow because of the very grueling frustrating flaws in the program.

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Western Governors University Does It Again

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