WGU Student Newsletter

Welcome to the WGU Student Newsletter

Welcome! Welcome to the first issue of the WGU Student Newsletter. We have created it, not only to keep students informed and connected, but also to give them an additional way to be heard.

We are aiming to make this newsletter both informative and enjoyable for readers. You will find information that is helpful to you as a student such as policy explanations and strategies for succeeding at WGU. You will also find stories and profiles about fellow students and WGU faculty. We tried to make navigation of the newsletter as simple as possible. Above, you will find static links to the main sections, and to the left, a dynamic navigation bar provides links to the articles and information of each section.

The WGU Community and its members are unique. Our way of learning is innovative and effective. We hope to steer the WGU Student Newsletter down that same path. Please don’t hesitate to provide us with any feedback or suggestions. Most importantly, please share your lives with us. Feel free to send your suggestions and/or stories to sguy@wgu.edu. In the meantime, enjoy the newsletter and good luck on your journey to competence.

In His Own Words: WGU's 2500th Graduate

On November 28, 2007, James Lange became the 2500th graduate of WGU. This is quite a milestone for WGU since at the end of 2006 the University had approximately 650 graduates. We asked James to share his experience with us.

I walked into WGU with previous experience in online education. I graduated in 2004 from American Intercontinental University with a BS in IT and later also completed a Masters in IT. I realized that the IT workforce is forever changing, becoming more and more competitive, so I began looking for additional schools offering online courses. I discovered WGU through a combination of searches and became interested in the self-directed learning model, which seemed like the perfect fit for me. I enrolled in June 2006, under the Bachelor of Science-IT Software Emphasis program. Primarily, I wanted to build my skills in software development and apply my skills to earn IT certifications. I quickly adapted to WGU's philosophy of self-directed learning, which provided me with the freedom to excel in areas I was already strong in while giving me the chance to focus on less familiar areas without strict time constraints.

Looking back, I know I made the right choice in continuing my education. I achieved all my initial goals in becoming proficient in the JAVA programming language, as well as gaining valuable insight in professional development. Ironically shortly after I enrolled, I started a career with a well-established credit union as an IT Operations Engineer, which allowed me to apply what I was learning into real-time experience. I also discovered many helpful lessons I was previously unaware of, including subjects that covered how to effectively engage in teamwork environments, as well as change management strategies. I also learned other notable facts, such as your socks are supposed to match your pants, not your shoes! So in essence, graduating from WGU has made me a better programmer, as well as a better dresser!

Though I had a great experience throughout my program, it wasn't easy; even with my experience, I found a lot of areas challenging that required a great deal of concentration and time devoted to study. Without the self-discipline to allocate time to study, succeeding would be virtually impossible. For this reason, I only recommend WGU to those who are committed and capable of being self motivated to get through the courses and actually learn the material. Again, I found the program well worth my time and effort. Thank you WGU for providing this opportunity!

Mentor Spotlight

Lauren Cohen, considers herself both a native Virginian and Georgian. She moved to Utah about a year ago, currently resides in Ogden, and works at WGU headquarters in Salt Lake. She is the Team Coordinator for Progress Mentors, and works across all WGU colleges with the Progress Mentors to make sure they have the tools they need to serve students in the best way possible. She is also a Mentor for a small number of undergraduate business students.

"I am constantly impressed and amazed with the responsibilities our students shoulder on top of going to school full-time. Mentors are here to assist students on the path to graduation while helping them balance school with every other aspect of their busy lives. Every graduate is another testament to the fact that this can be done, and as mentors we take heart in this too." - Lauren Cohen

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor Eight months after my car accident and two months after I finally got out of my wheelchair, my physician gave me permission to return to the gym. Having been gone so long, I decided to jumpstart my routine by hiring a personal trainer. When I sat down with him, the first question he asked me was, “Do you want to be fit? Or do you want to be a person who goes to the gym?” When I paused to think of what he meant, he pointed to a guy on a flat bench. “That guy can probably bench-press about 350 pounds. He is in here six days a week, but he would almost kill himself if he tried to do a bike race. On the other hand, you have people in here that can run marathons but couldn’t generate enough force to knock down a small attacker. Fitness is more than power and persistence. It includes eating, sleeping, and your entire lifestyle.”

In WGU hindsight, what my trainer was trying to explain to me was the difference between passing specific tests and developing overall competency. Just as being fit was not about whether I could perform extremely well in one area but fail the rest, so is professional competence not about honing just one skill or passing one test, but rather about being capable of performing well in whatever situation life or work presents you with. At a recent conference I challenged one of my colleagues to give me the universal standard at his traditional university that all classes in his discipline were supposed to be judged by, and of course there was none. When I started at a state university, they threw me in a classroom and told me to teach a subject. In my time there, I taught dozens of classes, no two alike, even when they were on the same subject. There were dozens of other professors doing the same thing, resulting in no guarantee that the students were at least focused on the same objectives, and of course the students knew this. So they networked with each other to find out what was the easiest way to get through the required classes.

No matter who you are, how you learn, or who your mentor is at WGU, you still have to demonstrate the same set of competencies as everyone else in your program. And unlike a traditional university, your mentor doesn’t assess you, so there is no chance of skating by just because you showed up to every class or happened to be best friends with the professor’s nephew. At the same time, nothing here requires you to sit through fifteen weeks of lectures about stuff you already know, when you can demonstrate competency. I say “demonstrate competency” here rather than “pass assessments” because while assessments are the way we measure competency, they are still only a sampling because it is impossible to measure every single aspect. It’s a cloud sampling, not the cloud itself. To return to my comparison with fitness, there have been plenty of examples of athletes who died at the height of their career, because even though they were able to play the game or succeed at the activity, they were not in truth “fit.” Thus, at WGU, we strive for competency, which is why we have courses of study, guided learning tools, and independent learning resources. Your program is designed to make you competent; the assessment is designed to sample that competency. Rather than strive to pass assessments, the goal should be to become competent, which will automatically lead to passing the assessment, but more importantly will prepare you to deal competently with situations that may not be directly measured by a performance task or objective test item. Since most of the professional challenges you will meet will not mirror those you find on an assessment, the more you are able to develop competency, the more capable you will be to succeed in the work place.

One final comparison: as with working out physically, developing competency is something that comes only with continued use. During a recent discussion about education, several people looked offended when I argued that if a student is never going to use a knowledge or skill set that we are forcing them to develop or if it is something that we expect them to forget in a year, why are we wasting their time on it? Continued practice and application is how you train your body, and the same must be true of the competencies you develop. Some students question why they are required to repeat certain processes when taking courses like critical thinking. It is because having a critical thought doesn’t make you a critical thinker. As my mom says, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. To repeat what I said earlier, our goal is not to hope that you only encounter situations we have tested you on, but to prepare you for whatever situations you may find yourself encountering in life.

This newsletter will serve as another resource for helping you, our students—our top priority—succeed. Through it we hope to help you strengthen your ties to each other and to us by putting you in touch with each other to talk about strategies aiding your success, obstacles that you are overcoming, and goals that you are advancing towards. Please feel encouraged to share your observations, both good and bad, and we will work to always make sure your voice is heard. Whatever issues you have, let us tackle them together. When it comes to competency, we can all be personal trainers to each other.

Best Wishes,
Gregory W. Fowler, Ph.D
Director of Liberal Arts, EWB, and Alumni Services


Volume 1, Issue 1 February 2008	Home \| News & Highlights \| FAQs Teachers \| Business \| IT \| Health \| Liberal Arts
In This Section Welcome to the WGU Student Newsletter In His Own Words: The 2500th Graduate Mentor Spotlight Letter from the Editor Calendar of Events February 15 Student/Mentor Mixer - RSVP Now February 16 Graduation Write to the Editor Contribute an article to the editor for publication. CLICK HERE
	Welcome to the WGU Student Newsletter Welcome to the first issue of the WGU Student Newsletter. We have created it, not only to keep students informed and connected, but also to give them an additional way to be heard. We are aiming to make this newsletter both informative and enjoyable for readers. You will find information that is helpful to you as a student such as policy explanations and strategies for succeeding at WGU. You will also find stories and profiles about fellow students and WGU faculty. We tried to make navigation of the newsletter as simple as possible. Above, you will find static links to the main sections, and to the left, a dynamic navigation bar provides links to the articles and information of each section. The WGU Community and its members are unique. Our way of learning is innovative and effective. We hope to steer the WGU Student Newsletter down that same path. Please don’t hesitate to provide us with any feedback or suggestions. Most importantly, please share your lives with us. Feel free to send your suggestions and/or stories to sguy@wgu.edu. In the meantime, enjoy the newsletter and good luck on your journey to competence. In His Own Words: WGU's 2500th Graduate On November 28, 2007, James Lange became the 2500th graduate of WGU. This is quite a milestone for WGU since at the end of 2006 the University had approximately 650 graduates. We asked James to share his experience with us. I walked into WGU with previous experience in online education. I graduated in 2004 from American Intercontinental University with a BS in IT and later also completed a Masters in IT. I realized that the IT workforce is forever changing, becoming more and more competitive, so I began looking for additional schools offering online courses. I discovered WGU through a combination of searches and became interested in the self-directed learning model, which seemed like the perfect fit for me. I enrolled in June 2006, under the Bachelor of Science-IT Software Emphasis program. Primarily, I wanted to build my skills in software development and apply my skills to earn IT certifications. I quickly adapted to WGU's philosophy of self-directed learning, which provided me with the freedom to excel in areas I was already strong in while giving me the chance to focus on less familiar areas without strict time constraints. Looking back, I know I made the right choice in continuing my education. I achieved all my initial goals in becoming proficient in the JAVA programming language, as well as gaining valuable insight in professional development. Ironically shortly after I enrolled, I started a career with a well-established credit union as an IT Operations Engineer, which allowed me to apply what I was learning into real-time experience. I also discovered many helpful lessons I was previously unaware of, including subjects that covered how to effectively engage in teamwork environments, as well as change management strategies. I also learned other notable facts, such as your socks are supposed to match your pants, not your shoes! So in essence, graduating from WGU has made me a better programmer, as well as a better dresser! Though I had a great experience throughout my program, it wasn't easy; even with my experience, I found a lot of areas challenging that required a great deal of concentration and time devoted to study. Without the self-discipline to allocate time to study, succeeding would be virtually impossible. For this reason, I only recommend WGU to those who are committed and capable of being self motivated to get through the courses and actually learn the material. Again, I found the program well worth my time and effort. Thank you WGU for providing this opportunity! Mentor Spotlight Lauren Cohen, considers herself both a native Virginian and Georgian. She moved to Utah about a year ago, currently resides in Ogden, and works at WGU headquarters in Salt Lake. She is the Team Coordinator for Progress Mentors, and works across all WGU colleges with the Progress Mentors to make sure they have the tools they need to serve students in the best way possible. She is also a Mentor for a small number of undergraduate business students. "I am constantly impressed and amazed with the responsibilities our students shoulder on top of going to school full-time. Mentors are here to assist students on the path to graduation while helping them balance school with every other aspect of their busy lives. Every graduate is another testament to the fact that this can be done, and as mentors we take heart in this too." - Lauren Cohen Letter from the Editor Eight months after my car accident and two months after I finally got out of my wheelchair, my physician gave me permission to return to the gym. Having been gone so long, I decided to jumpstart my routine by hiring a personal trainer. When I sat down with him, the first question he asked me was, “Do you want to be fit? Or do you want to be a person who goes to the gym?” When I paused to think of what he meant, he pointed to a guy on a flat bench. “That guy can probably bench-press about 350 pounds. He is in here six days a week, but he would almost kill himself if he tried to do a bike race. On the other hand, you have people in here that can run marathons but couldn’t generate enough force to knock down a small attacker. Fitness is more than power and persistence. It includes eating, sleeping, and your entire lifestyle.” In WGU hindsight, what my trainer was trying to explain to me was the difference between passing specific tests and developing overall competency. Just as being fit was not about whether I could perform extremely well in one area but fail the rest, so is professional competence not about honing just one skill or passing one test, but rather about being capable of performing well in whatever situation life or work presents you with. At a recent conference I challenged one of my colleagues to give me the universal standard at his traditional university that all classes in his discipline were supposed to be judged by, and of course there was none. When I started at a state university, they threw me in a classroom and told me to teach a subject. In my time there, I taught dozens of classes, no two alike, even when they were on the same subject. There were dozens of other professors doing the same thing, resulting in no guarantee that the students were at least focused on the same objectives, and of course the students knew this. So they networked with each other to find out what was the easiest way to get through the required classes. No matter who you are, how you learn, or who your mentor is at WGU, you still have to demonstrate the same set of competencies as everyone else in your program. And unlike a traditional university, your mentor doesn’t assess you, so there is no chance of skating by just because you showed up to every class or happened to be best friends with the professor’s nephew. At the same time, nothing here requires you to sit through fifteen weeks of lectures about stuff you already know, when you can demonstrate competency. I say “demonstrate competency” here rather than “pass assessments” because while assessments are the way we measure competency, they are still only a sampling because it is impossible to measure every single aspect. It’s a cloud sampling, not the cloud itself. To return to my comparison with fitness, there have been plenty of examples of athletes who died at the height of their career, because even though they were able to play the game or succeed at the activity, they were not in truth “fit.” Thus, at WGU, we strive for competency, which is why we have courses of study, guided learning tools, and independent learning resources. Your program is designed to make you competent; the assessment is designed to sample that competency. Rather than strive to pass assessments, the goal should be to become competent, which will automatically lead to passing the assessment, but more importantly will prepare you to deal competently with situations that may not be directly measured by a performance task or objective test item. Since most of the professional challenges you will meet will not mirror those you find on an assessment, the more you are able to develop competency, the more capable you will be to succeed in the work place. One final comparison: as with working out physically, developing competency is something that comes only with continued use. During a recent discussion about education, several people looked offended when I argued that if a student is never going to use a knowledge or skill set that we are forcing them to develop or if it is something that we expect them to forget in a year, why are we wasting their time on it? Continued practice and application is how you train your body, and the same must be true of the competencies you develop. Some students question why they are required to repeat certain processes when taking courses like critical thinking. It is because having a critical thought doesn’t make you a critical thinker. As my mom says, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. To repeat what I said earlier, our goal is not to hope that you only encounter situations we have tested you on, but to prepare you for whatever situations you may find yourself encountering in life. This newsletter will serve as another resource for helping you, our students—our top priority—succeed. Through it we hope to help you strengthen your ties to each other and to us by putting you in touch with each other to talk about strategies aiding your success, obstacles that you are overcoming, and goals that you are advancing towards. Please feel encouraged to share your observations, both good and bad, and we will work to always make sure your voice is heard. Whatever issues you have, let us tackle them together. When it comes to competency, we can all be personal trainers to each other. Best Wishes, Gregory W. Fowler, Ph.D Director of Liberal Arts, EWB, and Alumni Services