a little WGU MBA review....

[rebel100]

Today is Friday, Task 3 is still in the nether world of Taskstream, just submitted task 4...I feel optimistic on 4, we'll see how it goes.

If these two would pass I'd only be 1 long task shy of finishing this course, if I can just do that by the end of the month I'll be really happy...maybe play with it over the weekend. The mentors keep saying that Task 5 is really tasks 1-4 applied to another scenario so it seems logical to wait on Tasks 3 and 4 before getting to deep on 5.

Strategic Management and Organizational Management are both listed as 2 credits, but I'm told to expect them to both offer unique challenges. Strategic requires a simulation played against other students over 3 weeks then a paper on the results (detailed). I failed to watch the getting started video on time last month and wasn't able to start the simulation as I had planned (missed the cutoff by 36 hours or so). I thought I could just jump into the course next month, but just received notice that everything has changed and now I have to go watch the getting started video again...man I hate repeating stuff in a self paced environment!

[ryoder]

Sounds like you are moving along nicely.

NCU is now implementing TaskStream for some activities in some courses. I have never used it but will probably have to at some point soon.

[rebel100]

NCU is now implementing TaskStream for some activities in some courses. I have never used it but will probably have to at some point soon.

My condolences.

Actually I have a love hate relationship with them. It's impersonal, gives no credit for creativity, and the interface: student - instructor - grader can at times be disjointed. With that said, once you figure out where they are coming from it gets easier and the grading is usually back in a few days.

[rebel100]

Task 3 sent back for revisions this morning (Saturday), problems persist with my acquire vs. merge decision. E-mails from course mentors caught up with me, fix doesn't look too onerous, I'll make their clarifications and do it again.

Task 4 not back yet.

[rebel100]

Task 4 came back, this is the sort of stuff they say when you nail it:

"Score: Meets Requirement
Comment: Excellent work on this assessment! The submission meets all areas of the task requirements, and is very well written. Each of the task prompts is addressed in appropriate detail, and the work demonstrates a solid grasp upon the concepts of cost systems and financial analysis. Well done."

Too bad the great comments remain so elusive...at least I'm past the halfway mark on Financial Analyses.

[rebel100]

Task 3 passed...wasn't pretty but its done. Final Financial analyses task is sort of a capstone project invoking the stuff learned in the first 4 tasks...but then this class is DONE!

[rebel100]

OK, this is pretty cool. I sort of struggled with the first and third tasks in this course, the other two weren't a cakewalk either. Accounting really is like learning another language in some ways. But I persevered, Google'd a lot, read a lot, applied it to those 4 initial tasks....and guess what? I'm in task five and I realized I can actually read and decipher a financial statement. I see where the numbers fall, how one line item affects the next, how altering one input or output can change the course of the whole company. I mean, I knew a lot of this before...but now I know how to manipulate it and make sense of it.

I suspect this course will be the one I think back on when considering the value of my MBA in say 10 years. Subtle...but paradigm changing none the less.

task 5 is onerous, 11 separate prompts, but I'm actually enjoying this course now.

[namwen]

Do you mean to tell us that you are getting educated by your education?


:willynilly:

[rebel100]

Do you mean to tell us that you are getting educated by your education?


:willynilly:

Shocking....I know.

[rebel100]

Ever seen the movie "The 13th Warrior"? Antonio Banderas gets bullied into joining these 12 Norsemen on an epic journey to rid the old world of bear people who make war by Congo lining a burning caterpillar.... its worth seeing just for that. But there is a scene where Banderas is sitting around a campfire listening to the Norsemen talk in their native tongue (up to this point he communicated through hand gestures and an interpreter who was too chicken &*$# to go along on the bloody adventure. As he sits around this fire his mind starts associating the words with actions, pretty soon he starts getting the words...learning the new language. You see things "click" for him. I had that moment last night at 2 AM at my dining room table...just had to share!