Here it is, Day 2 of my experience as a student with WGU and so far, I'm extremely underwhelmed and a bit frustrated.
I received an email yesterday, Oct. 1 around 8AM that told me that I now had access to the first class, Education Without Boundaries (EWB). It's my understanding that the purpose of the class is similar to a new employee orientation. In the initial email, I'm also told that if I have any questions with this course, I should contact the EWB Mentors, and not my student mentor.
Some of the modules are pretty basic, such as showing you how to set up your signature in Gmail. Others talk about academic integrity, APA writing style, and time management. At the end of some modules there are 5 question, multiple-guess quizzes. For reasons that I do not know, we are supposed to take the quiz as many times as it takes, to get all of the questions right. There are no trick questions, and they're pretty basic. Some questions and "correct" answers I question, but whatever. Some modules have tasks or activities that you must perform before moving on. A few examples are sending an email to your EWB mentors with your newly-created signature (and not having them acknowledge it), and commenting on the discussion boards. I'm not quite sure why there is such an emphasis on responding to questions such as: "What would you do with your time if you graduated a term early?" and "What will your life be like after you graduate?". Some of the questions ask you what your background is or how you'll apply your supposedly new-found time management skills. One of the things I hated about working in HR was all of the ass-kissing it required. After reading some of the responses to these questions from my peers, I felt like I was back in the corporate world, listening to bullshit phrases that people use to make themselves sound important so they can keep their jobs. I guess I should have expected this, being in the MBA program, but...
Overall, the presentations are boring, the narrators are monotone, and just read what's on the screen, but I understand the purpose. I get it, ok?
I was working my way along yesterday and today, and felt quite confident that I could finish the class today, in time for me to (maybe) speak with my mentor as early as tomorrow. It took me several hours (7+) but I finally got to Module 11, which is MBA-specific. Along the way through the modules, there are checklists for each activity. One activity was to find a calendar in one of the discussion boards. Another was to have read the book, Ten Day MBA. It wasn't available within the module, so I requested it via my local library. This isn't too big of a deal since I have until Oct. 8th to finish the class.
I admit it, I'm somewhat of a Facebook stalker, and all day today, I kept reading about how people were finishing EWB in 1 hours, 2 hours, and 4 hours. What? Really? How is that even possible if you actually listen/watch the presentations? I'm not sure how many of the folks on the Facebook page are in the MBA program, but anyone who says that s/he has finished the class and read the book in 5 or 6 hours is lying. I've got no problem saying it behind someone's back.
Since I had trouble locating the discussion thread, I did what I thought I was supposed to do; I sent an email to my EWB mentors for some assistance. I also mentioned not having time to have read the book yet, as a way of trying to get someone to tell me that it's ok to read it later. I'm not much for details or following rules when they don't make sense (to me) but I'm really trying here. We'll see what tomorrow brings. _______________________________________________________________________
10.03.11 UPDATE:
I heard back from an EWB Mentor. She said that she was the wrong person to contact, but that she'd CC'd the correct person. It's 6:40PM and I've yet to get any feedback. So far, the WGU experience is far below expectations.
I received an email yesterday, Oct. 1 around 8AM that told me that I now had access to the first class, Education Without Boundaries (EWB). It's my understanding that the purpose of the class is similar to a new employee orientation. In the initial email, I'm also told that if I have any questions with this course, I should contact the EWB Mentors, and not my student mentor.
Some of the modules are pretty basic, such as showing you how to set up your signature in Gmail. Others talk about academic integrity, APA writing style, and time management. At the end of some modules there are 5 question, multiple-guess quizzes. For reasons that I do not know, we are supposed to take the quiz as many times as it takes, to get all of the questions right. There are no trick questions, and they're pretty basic. Some questions and "correct" answers I question, but whatever. Some modules have tasks or activities that you must perform before moving on. A few examples are sending an email to your EWB mentors with your newly-created signature (and not having them acknowledge it), and commenting on the discussion boards. I'm not quite sure why there is such an emphasis on responding to questions such as: "What would you do with your time if you graduated a term early?" and "What will your life be like after you graduate?". Some of the questions ask you what your background is or how you'll apply your supposedly new-found time management skills. One of the things I hated about working in HR was all of the ass-kissing it required. After reading some of the responses to these questions from my peers, I felt like I was back in the corporate world, listening to bullshit phrases that people use to make themselves sound important so they can keep their jobs. I guess I should have expected this, being in the MBA program, but...
Overall, the presentations are boring, the narrators are monotone, and just read what's on the screen, but I understand the purpose. I get it, ok?
I was working my way along yesterday and today, and felt quite confident that I could finish the class today, in time for me to (maybe) speak with my mentor as early as tomorrow. It took me several hours (7+) but I finally got to Module 11, which is MBA-specific. Along the way through the modules, there are checklists for each activity. One activity was to find a calendar in one of the discussion boards. Another was to have read the book, Ten Day MBA. It wasn't available within the module, so I requested it via my local library. This isn't too big of a deal since I have until Oct. 8th to finish the class.
I admit it, I'm somewhat of a Facebook stalker, and all day today, I kept reading about how people were finishing EWB in 1 hours, 2 hours, and 4 hours. What? Really? How is that even possible if you actually listen/watch the presentations? I'm not sure how many of the folks on the Facebook page are in the MBA program, but anyone who says that s/he has finished the class and read the book in 5 or 6 hours is lying. I've got no problem saying it behind someone's back.
Since I had trouble locating the discussion thread, I did what I thought I was supposed to do; I sent an email to my EWB mentors for some assistance. I also mentioned not having time to have read the book yet, as a way of trying to get someone to tell me that it's ok to read it later. I'm not much for details or following rules when they don't make sense (to me) but I'm really trying here. We'll see what tomorrow brings. _______________________________________________________________________
10.03.11 UPDATE:
I heard back from an EWB Mentor. She said that she was the wrong person to contact, but that she'd CC'd the correct person. It's 6:40PM and I've yet to get any feedback. So far, the WGU experience is far below expectations.