Pulling back the curtain on Life At WGU

Background

WGU is a non-profit Online University based in Salt Lake City, UT. It provides an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar institutions with a (supposedly) more flexible and more affordable classroom model. It does this by providing a competency-based education model. It focuses more on "Can you do the thing?" more than "Can you regurgitate facts from a book?". In this exposé, I will shine some light on the aspects of this model that are less than friendly to their core demographics, the busy professional/parent and/or the individual that cannot afford traditional school.

The story I am going to lay out is one of two schools: The idyllic online school that they paint in the brochures, and the reality, a mostly great school with a penchant for strong-arming students to make sure they(the school) look good.

I started going to WGU in the Spring of 2019. Back in these halcyon days, WGU seemed a perfect fit. They had a CS degree program, they had the programming language which I wanted to focus on (not critical for CS, but REALLYnice.), they were online, and they were flexible (You can set your own schedule for completion of courses [At least, initially. more on that in a moment]). These all made WGU a great choice. Plus, their model of fixed tuition for a semester of work meant that I could pay for my semester up front, and if I got done early, pull additional classes into my schedule at no additional out of pocket cost.

Issues

This is where it started going off the rails. As I approached my first test, I started noticing some cracks forming in this perfect façade they had placed before us. Taking a school test, (not one of the certification tests, but one provided by the school) can be ... difficult. Especially if you are at their core demographic, a working parent, or, heaven forbid, one of the disenfranchised poor. To take a test at WGU, one must be in a hermetically sealed box with no other things in that box. Even the computer you are taking the test on is borderline offensive to them. Now, obviously I am being hyperbolic for effect here, but the base premise rings true. Any intrusion by any individual into your space constitutes a fail. This therefore requires the individual in question to not be a single parent, not be poor (because you have to have a separate, dedicated room for this test), and not live in a tight space. Their website states:

Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive environment where students, faculty, and staff can be their best selves as they learn and grow. WGU is committed to promoting inclusion, respect, and acceptance for differences, equal opportunity, and diversity in all of our operations and endeavors. WGU has an active and growing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) program, which is focused on advancing equity among all of our stakeholders—students, employees, and alumni. Our DE&I initiatives are aimed at building communities that value each individual and encourage open, respectful conversations.

This has so far seemed to be lip service, or at the very least, a victim of security as shown above.

When I brought this up with the CEO of the company they use for proctor services, he actually gave me the Nuremburg Defense. This did not seem like the welcoming, amazing place I had seen initially, what was going on? Well, it got worse.

In early 2021, at the height of the pandemic, they decided to once again go antithetical to another of their core tenets, flexibility. Now, if you don't work "fast enough", a KPI with a semmingly vague meaning, they will threaten to kick you out. For working at your own pace. Something their advertising materials still promote as of this writing. From their website:

With 24/7 access to online learning resources to engage with on their schedule, students embark on a learning journey tailored exactly to where their knowledge currently is—and where it needs to be.

You can totally learn at your own pace at WGU, as long as they deem you are learning fast enough. If not, they will use strong-arm tactics to force you to progress at what they feel is a comfortable pace. After about 2 weeks without completing activitiy, they will mark you as inactive then give you a date by which you need to return to "active status". If you do not comply with their demands, they will (in their words), "need to proceed with processing an administrative withdrawal due to inactivity".

Conclusion

WGU still seems to be a great fit, but it seems like they are now focusing more on numbers and stats that the actual students like they were in the beginning. Once, in one of the early semesters, I actually had a disaster team reach out to me checking if I was OK after severe flooding in my area. This attention to their students seems to be waning as time goes on. It is quite disappointing to see.