Documenting My Journey: WGU BSIT-Security

[Thorne]

Completed my intake interview today. Unfortunately, Orientation isn't open until the 15th, so I have no choice but to wait.

On the upside, they really want people to complete at least one course in the first month due to an increased graduation rate. In my case, this should mean they won't have a problem with me knocking out 3 in the first month.

[jsd]

Completed my intake interview today. Unfortunately, Orientation isn't open until the 15th, so I have no choice but to wait.

On the upside, they really want people to complete at least one course in the first month due to an increased graduation rate. In my case, this should mean they won't have a problem with me knocking out 3 in the first month.

i did 4 my first month. you shouldn't have any issue with 3. i bet you can beat my 4 easily.

[rowan555]

Your mentor will be thrilled with you. My son's mentor is so excited to have a student blowing through courses without needing constant hand-holding and encouragement and reminders. He'd be even further along if he hadn't had to wait until the 14th of the month to receive his webcam and begin scheduling assessments.

[jsd]

Your mentor will be thrilled with you. My son's mentor is so excited to have a student blowing through courses without needing constant hand-holding and encouragement and reminders. He'd be even further along if he hadn't had to wait until the 14th of the month to receive his webcam and begin scheduling assessments.

yeah my mentor really seems happy to not have to hold my hand. all of our calls are basically "you good?" "yes!" "Keep up the good work!"

I make his job easy and I don't have to deal with pointless calls. win-win.

[Thorne]

yeah my mentor really seems happy to not have to hold my hand. all of our calls are basically "you good?" "yes!" "Keep up the good work!" I make his job easy and I don't have to deal with pointless calls. win-win.

Your mentor will be thrilled with you. My son's mentor is so excited to have a student blowing through courses without needing constant hand-holding and encouragement and reminders.

Good to hear! My enrollment counselor seemed convinced that I would have, "weekly calls of substance," between myself and my mentor...and that certain courses were simply locked into a list that couldn't be shuffled around.

He'd be even further along if he hadn't had to wait until the 14th of the month to receive his webcam and begin scheduling assessments.

Ouch. This is why I'm glad to be doing an IT program rather than a Business program with WGU. By the time I get to my first in-house exam, I should be 3-5 classes down.

[rowan555]

Good to hear! My enrollment counselor seemed convinced that I would have, "weekly calls of substance," between myself and my mentor...and that certain courses were simply locked into a list that couldn't be shuffled around.

My son is allergic to bullshit - he was practically breaking out in hives thinking about having to spend 30 minutes a week on the phone with his course mentor when he could be using that time to actually work on his degree. His first call the week of orientation was about 30 minutes long, but then the calls were closer to 5 or 10 minutes long, and by the end of his first month his mentor told him they could begin doing calls every other week. His last call was maybe 3 minutes long. The mentor just has to document that phone contact, so as long as they are confident you are making progress and doing well, they don't want to spend extra time on the phone any more than you do. In addition, if you have to miss a call for some reason there's a little form you can fill out and email which counts as your mentor communication.

One thing which irritated my son was that he wanted to go ahead and put every course into this term since he will be completing everything in this one term. As it was, his 11 courses were spread out over 3 terms, and just seeing that in his degree plan was stressing him out. His mentor stuck with keeping only 4 courses in term 1 but then put the other 7 in term 2. He completed 3 of those 4 term 1 courses then decided he wanted to do some other courses than the 4th in his term 1 list, so he asked his mentor to go ahead and move one into his first term. As soon as he completed that one, his mentor moved another one up. So it's worked out fine, and he's going through things in the order he wants even though at first it appeared there would be no wiggle room.

You can access all materials for every course in your degree plan at any time, but you cannot submit tasks or take assessments unless the course is in your current term and you are enrolled in it. It's a very simple process just requiring an email and a click on the "request approval" button.

[Thorne]

So, due to the update, my signature got chopped down to the bare minimum. Hooray? The forum is much better than it was, minus a few small hiccups, but I'm going to miss the long signature.

Long story short, I wrapped up Orientation on the 16th, spoke to my Student Mentor on the 19th, and created a plan to meet On Time Progress. I'm all but done with the 220-901 and am wrapping up the 220-902. Probably starting tomorrow, I'm going to start the Project+ to get that knocked out. It's a little slower than I wanted it to be, but getting done nonetheless.

[bluebooger]

Your mentor will be thrilled with you. My son's mentor is so excited to have a student blowing through courses without needing constant hand-holding and encouragement and reminders. He'd be even further along if he hadn't had to wait until the 14th of the month to receive his webcam and begin scheduling assessments.

why do you need webcams ?

does WGU use ProctorU

[Thorne]

why do you need webcams ?

does WGU use ProctorU

WGU has an in-house proctoring service that is much more specific (and more anal retentive) than ProctorU.

[jsd]

why do you need webcams ?

does WGU use ProctorU

WGU has an in-house proctoring service that is much more specific (and more anal retentive) than ProctorU.

Are you on some beta program? My in house exams are using Examity (much easier than ProctorU in my experience, but I've only used ProctorU once and Examity a bunch through WGU and Patten).

I think the WGU college of business is still using ProctorU. Not sure why it's split up by college (or if it still is, though it was as of a few months back)