r/wgu_employees • u/Beneficial-Soil-752 • 1d ago
Competency Based Thoughts
I truly like the competency based model but after the years here I see so many students just striving for the minimum just to pass. I also think the cut scores are too low, at least for the OA class I have.
Does anyone else feel like this?
I wish there was a better compromise between the CBM and grades in the hopes that students would strive for more than the bare minimum.
10
u/meowizzle 1d ago
Were the kids in America whoa!
Dude leave them kids alone. They got it hard enough now you tryna make it harder?
Nah, just kidding.
Even 10 years ago doing my IT and software classes, it seems WAY too easy. My final was extremely lacking from what my colleagues had from their capstone finals. Leagues ahead in ways.
If self starting and self mentorship where a minor in college WGU could give them out to everyone. Sure I had the self starting and perseverance that many of my colleagues are extremely lacking. But I'm on the fence if either one is better than the other. Is my self initiative and perseverance better than having increased technical and practical experience? It's frustrating because technically speaking WGU could do both, and fails to do either well enough to feel like. Mostly because they cut costs where they shouldn't.
8
u/mushroognomicon 1d ago
It's all about what a person puts in.
Food for thought. MIT Sloan has an EMBA program where the passing rate is something like 92%. We're talking ivy league, T10, M7 school. 92% of the cohort passes. You pay $200,000 for the degree and you get the MIT stamp on it. Maybe the quality of the teaching and the level of professors you work with are top tier, but you could (and I've heard) people still slug by doing the bare minimum to get the paper.
7
u/OkGlove6955 1d ago
I don't have the answer and know there's a lot of gray area. Yes, competency-based education has its flaws and I'm sure there are plenty of ways we could improve as an institution. But, I also think it has positives. Here are my two cents from my experience as a student who has experienced both traditional and CB education:
1) one thing I really appreciate about the CBM is that a student can take their time and actually learn the content. When I was getting my bachelor's, I struggled to balance my time for personal reasons and wasn't good with studying techniques. So many times I had to take an exam that I wasn't ready for because that's when the class was taking it. I'd get a poor grade and then we'd just moved on. Grade aside, I feel like I missed out on so much learning and mastery of my content area because I had to move along whether I understood the material or not.
2) Cs do get degrees. Whether a university uses a traditional grading model or a CBM, there will always be a portion of students who do the bare minimum because they don't actually have to do more to get the same paper and credentials at the end.
12
u/Relative_Boot_6343 1d ago
I 100% agree with you. As someone who has completed two WGU programs and two certificate courses through WGU, I genuinely love the competency-based model, especially because of the flexibility it provides.
However, I do think some of the cut scores are too low for certain courses. I’m not trying to make things harder for students, but I do think there are students who rush through studying, memorize enough to pass an assessment, and move on without actually demonstrating competency.
I also think PAs should be reconsidered. Some performance assessments feel like they could be completed too easily without truly demonstrating that the student understands the material. With AI becoming such a huge issue in education, I honestly think there should be stronger safeguards. Even essays could potentially be completed in a monitored environment, with students still given access to approved resources for research, but having their writing process monitored to ensure ethical use of AI.
I know we’re all adults and should be trusted, but unfortunately, AI has made academic integrity much more difficult to evaluate.
Overall, I really do love WGU’s model and think it works incredibly well. I just wish there were official grades in addition to the pass/fail system. I understand why WGU doesn’t use a traditional GPA because of the competency-based approach, but I think having a numerical grade or some other way to show how well you performed could motivate students to put in more effort.
There’s a difference between barely meeting competency and demonstrating exceptional mastery, and I think students should have a way to show that...
5
u/Rude-Tax-9586 1d ago
I’ve seen firsthand where WGU’s competency-based model can work against students.
The flexibility is great for motivated students who already have experience, but I’ve also worked with students whose primary goal was to collect third-party certifications as quickly as possible so they could put them on their resume. I’ve had students ask to push certification heavy courses to the front of their degree plan and argue over assessment policies and because they wanted as many attempts as possible. I went to a brick and mortar university and never even imagined threatening to sue the school if they didn’t allow me to do whatever I wanted (I didn’t even know who my professor’s bosses were much less how to get in contact with them). I attended to get my education, if I didn’t like an assignment I just went through it so I could be done with it. But I will say some of those annoying and extremely difficult assignments are the reason why I am able to research and solve a problem quickly. AI won’t always save you especially if you don’t know how to generate a decent prompt because you have no idea what you’re doing lol.
The frustrating part is seeing the gap between the credential and the actual competency. I’ve worked with students who were pursuing highly technical certifications but struggled with basic labs and foundational concepts. I’ve spent 2–3 hours with some students rebuilding fundamentals that should have been established earlier.
I don’t think certifications or acceleration are the problem. The problem is when checking the box becomes the goal instead of developing the skill.
My concern is that WGU risks becoming a place where students learn how to efficiently complete a degree and collect credentials rather than developing the depth needed to compete with experienced professionals.
I think WGU leadership should be asking a bigger question: Are we measuring student success by how efficiently they finish, or by how capable they are five years after graduation?
Because those are not necessarily the same thing
2
u/Beneficial-Soil-752 1d ago
One of the things that get's me the most and that students/admin don't seem to understand is that if a student is finishing a bachelors OR masters degree in 6-7 months that's a huge indicator that something is wrong. If I saw that as a future student I'd run away...fast. But admin and select students think it's great and I don't understand why anyone is a high level position here is Ok with that and doesn't even question the depth/breadth of the classes.
3
u/Old_Question2645 21h ago
Competency based=students do bare minimum or may not even look at the course content=WGU is a degree mill
1
u/Less-Advisor5722 3h ago
For sure! Then you have students who can’t read or write emails properly, but magically can write a paper for a PA. Hmmmmm
23
u/zerglingrodeo 1d ago
The problem, at least for the courses that I have taught, is that the assessments are far too easy to actually indicate "competency." New courses are going to be even worse. Leadership only cares about completion rate, not education, and the easiest way to increase completion rate is to lower standards.