Don’t Let Studying and Essentially Graduating Be Optional – What
else can I say? Don’t think about it, be about it. You are in control of your education. If you make the right amount of effort, you
can achieve your degree. It won’t be
easy, but it is worth it. Commit to your
success, believe in yourself, and make the necessary changes, if needed, to achieve
your goal of graduating.
Don’t Procrastinate and Don’t Assume There Will Be Enough Time…
Don’t Procrastinate and don’t assume there will
be enough time…There
is never enough time, and there is always something that is going to compete
for your time. Too many times students
give themselves too much pressure at the end of the term because they've waited
too long to start studying. The last
month of your term is not the time to get focused on studying. If that is your
plan, change it. Today is the day to study.
The longer you put off making progress, the longer you are putting off
the goal of graduating.
Work with Course Mentors
Work with Course Mentors - They know the course, they know the test, they
know the best tips and tricks for success with each course. As much as I try to know each course, there
are far too many to have an expert level understanding of each subject
matter. The course mentors do have that
expert level of understanding. They help students every day, that’s what they
are here for. I used them for every
course and am grateful for their help and glad that I did. If you aren't reaching out to Course Mentors, Start.
Work Backwards from Goal Dates to Complete a Course
Work backwards from
goal dates to complete a course – Simple math is incredibly helpful. If you have 3 courses to complete in 6 months,
you have 2 months to complete each course. That’s a simple calculation. If your goal is to complete 1 course every
month, and your course has 4 tasks, you have to complete 1 task every week. We all have different pacing, and WGU lets
students study at their own pace, but that doesn't mean a snail’s pace is
acceptable. I've found that successful
students have a time frame they want to complete a course, and set up a plan of
action to reach that goal. If you leave
a course open-ended and will complete it when the time is right, inevitably
time is wasted, delays are always occurring, and completing all their courses
in a term is very challenging.
Set specific goals, be accountable to them, and make a plan
Set specific goals, be
accountable to them, and make a plan – Without a plan, a goal is just a
wish. You need to know what you want to
accomplish. The large goal is
graduating, and completing each course is part of that process. Don’t hope to complete a course, and you will
take the test when you feel ready… you need to commit to completing a course by
a certain date. Give yourself a deadline
that you won’t be happy with yourself if you miss it. My goal is to complete 1 course every 30
days. If I completed it in 21 days, I had
9 days to reward myself with. If I completed it in 29 days, I took a day
off. The key thing is, my studying was
not optional. If I took time off from
studying, before reaching my goal, it was planned, and my study time the other
days of the week adjusted for that day off. Reaching my goal of completing 1 course every
30 days was not optional. Set your goals
and commit to them.
Stay Organized
Stay organized –
Tips
Emails - Organize
them. Have different folders for different
courses. You get a lot of communication
from WGU, Course Mentors, and your Mentor.
Have places to put these messages and let your INBOX be your to-do list.
Every course should have its own folder and any communication regarding that
course belongs in that folder.
Websites- Create a
Favorites folder for WGU courses. Make
subfolders for the websites and online resources you may need for each course,
and label those folders with the corresponding course codes or names. Just like your emails, every course should have
its own folder and any online resource regarding that course belongs in that
folder.
Online Distractions –
Make the WGU portal or Google your home page.
I don’t care what search engine you prefer, but google has very few
distractions on it. If you don’t want to
make a permanent change in search engines, make a shortcut to google or the WGU
portal on your desktop, that way when you start your studying for the day, you
won’t be tempted to read the latest news story, see personal emails pop up, get
lost in youtube, or try to access social networking sites…. When you are in
study mode, make it about studying. Simply changing your starting point to
accessing our study material removes big distractions that easily take away
from the time we could be studying. Take easy steps to avoid online
distractions
Take Notes
Take Notes – I wish
I was smart enough to memorize everything I’ve watched or read, but I’m
not. Most people need to go over
material multiple times before they are competent in that subject matter. The act of taking notes is another way to
commit information to memory and should be utilized. If you aren’t taking
notes, you aren’t studying… you are just reading, or watching videos…. If you aren’t taking notes, Start taking
them
Read your emails
Read your emails – If you aren’t, start. Especially if you email someone at WGU, you
should receive a response via email as well.
Too often I hear students emailing for help with an issue, and an email
response is given, yet the student never checked their email for the
response. Check your email every day
Use the Course of Study
Using the Course of
Study – Every Course of Study can be accessed from the MyDegreePlan section
of the Student Portal. Whether the
course is in the 1st term, or the last, you can still open up the
course, study the material and work on the competencies for that course.
If you aren't using
the Course of Study, you should start. This is your guide to complete the
course and you may be missing important information if you don’t utilize it.
Start with the Study
Plan – this is where all the steps are located to completing your course
work. Access to the course material is
located here. The INTRODUCTION and PREPARING for SUCCESS sections have
information about the course in them, but the actual course content starts
after the PREPARING FOR SUCCESS section.
There are pacing
guides – These are located in the PREPARING FOR SUCCESS section of the
Course of Study. These lay out
reasonable time frames to complete a course with the corresponding course work
needed to be completed for that week’s pacing.
Work through the Material
– There are no shortcuts in getting through the reading, exercises, and
learning… we have to work through the information provided in the course if we
are expecting to learn the material and pass the exam and assignments.
Use the links in the Course
of Study to access the learning material.
Often if you are
getting an error or can’t find the information the Course of Study is referring
too, look for the links in the Course of Study.
That usually solves the problem.
Complete the
corresponding lessons indicated in the Course of Study
“Mark Completed”
function to keep track of your progress and as a placeholder for when you start
and stop your studying for the day. It
also keeps track of how much progress you've completed in the course
Final Steps / First
Attempt Checklist – This is where the requirements are located to take an
exam are located. For IT Exams and
Certifications, the practice tests are discussed in this section.
The Assessment Tab
– Pre-assessments, Exam Scheduling, and links to Task Directions for
Performance Assessments are located here.
You will be able to see what the passing score is, how many questions
there are on the exam, and the Coaching Report on how you did on the exam.
Coaching Report –
Click on the link for the Coaching Report -
you will see how you scored on each section. You can click the Topics that you want to
review and it will open up those sections back in the Course Of Study. Review the areas you are weakest in and work
your way up to your strongest sections.
Scheduling the Exam -
Email your mentor for approval, once
they approve it, click the SCHEDULE NOW button in the Assessment Tab and follow
the prompts to schedule the test.
Performance Assessments – Task Directions can be found in Taskstream or
by clicking the TASKSTREAM button in the assessment tab.
Feedback – WGU wants
student Feedback. You can speak with
your mentor about your experience with the course, but use the feedback section
if you’d like WGU to make corrections or improvements you found the course may
need.
Working through Performance Assessments – Directions are located in Taskstream and in the
Course of Study in the Assessment Tab
If you use the Course of Study to access the task
directions, a new window will open and you will have to click on the farthest
link to the right in the web pages Navigation Bar. It is usually the course’s name.
Read the task directions, and answer the prompts given. You will be graded on each section
listed. In the example, there are
sections A, B, and C. Answer the questions
independent of each other. If you have sections that require the same
information, repeat it in each section.
Also, it is okay to Label your papers with section it corresponds to in
the task directions. You can put A: on your paper and answer that section, the
move to B: and so on.
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