Woo Goo Is for You (Maybe)

So I work as an editor in the assessment development department for Western Governors University. It's an online school. I know what you're thinking, "scam alert!" That's what I thought when I started working for WGU (Woo Goo or WuGoo?). Schools like University of Phoenix will hand out degrees to anyone so they can get a little (a lot!) of scratch. WGU is not a corporate monster.

I had no qualms working for fake schools. Before Woo Goo, I worked for Prosper University, scamming old people out of the money they didn't have ("gotta spend money to make money"—"the only way to eliminate that massive debt is to spend a little more"). I guess anyone can call anything a university. I should rename my blog "Jonathan Reddoch University" instead of "feeling a little wheezy." Actually I did have qualms about scamming old people, which is why I was such a bad salesman there (oh and I am lazy). Now Prosper scams like no other. They really take their students to school if you know what I mean (they also waterboard like no other). But the more I work at WGU the more I realize this is not Prosper ScamU. It's totally legit. In fact the more I work here, the more I realize we are actually developing a better way to educate students than even BYU where I currently attend. I gotta admit most a the english education I payed four was pretty unpractical, but thats what i get for being a English mjor.

WGU is trying to improve the way students are assessed (measuring competency) without ridiculous outdated methods. Curves for example are the result of a failure in teaching, specifically teaching uniformly. One of my jobs here is to improve the quality of test questions by flagging easy ones, stupid ones, confusing ones, tricky ones, opinion based ones, best answer ones, etc. You know the kind of questions professors write who have no idea how to write a test that measures competency (like every teacher I've ever had). Being a good test taker should not earn you a degree in something you are not competent in.

Identifying the "correct" answer shouldn't require you to live in the teacher's head. Correct answers should NOT be justified by "well the book does say that but remember in class I disagreed with the book."

What brought this on was this. So I was reading these online reviews of WGU and they are mostly really positive. Most of the students thought WGU was pretty good, even (or especially) compared to brick and mortar schools. The negative ones, as many of the positive reviews point out, stems from a failure on the student's part. The negative responses came from whiny Gomezes. One student was halfway through the teaching program before they discovered that Oregon apparently doesn't recognize the teaching degree from WGU. That sounds like an issue with Oregon to me. I know BYU teaching degrees aren't accepted everywhere either (I looked that shiz up when I was originally a teaching English major). Some other whiny baby said that Pennsylvania required the student to take three additional classes, and somehow that is WGU's fault. So? Take three more classes you crybaby.

One guy had trouble with financial aid. Ha! Really? What a surprise. I am sure no one has ever had trouble with that anywhere else. Holy heck financial aid is a quagmire of red tape and ridiculousness at BYU. Probably because it involves the government so much in the process. Maybe they should be giving Obama a bad review.

Here is my review: Woo Goo is for you! (Maybe) actually it might be too hard for you.

Anyway. Sorry this post isn't very funny. Maybe I should make a joke. So a pumpkin walks into a bar and says, "Can I get a whiskey sour." The bartender says "We only have cheerful whiskey." Actually ignore that joke. It needs work, but in this economy who doesn't? Haha get it. The whole set up was to make a recession joke about a nonsensical pumpkin joke. . .bah I should just stop while I'm a behind. Get it. I'm a behind? Like a bottom? K blog finished.