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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\nThe following represents my opinions as a former WGU employee. I As I used to say to my students who took online classes before; it’s also true for faculty:<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n you’ve never experienced anything like WGU before.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The competency-based model<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n The next item to learn is the disaggregated faculty model<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n In Those I want you to work the shift I need (which might indeed be
\nconducted over 150 interviews and hired at least 30 faculty in my role
\nas a Department Head or Program Manager. Specifically, I worked in the
\nGeneral Education department but as you’ll see, the names for many
\nthings at WGU are different; Gen Ed was never referred to much as a
\ndepartment or quasi-college. While I would look for a specific type of
\nfaculty member for General Education, I don’t feel as though the list of
\n qualifications would not apply to faculty within the four colleges as
\nwell. I’m writing about the course faculty, course mentor, academic
\nmentor, or whatever title they give the people that work in the courses.
\n I’m not referring to student mentors, progress mentors, graders, or
\nassessment faculty.<\/span><\/p>\nHow WGU measures competency<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n takes a little time to get used to and, as a concept, is foggy to
\nunderstand. My current best definition is that we taught to “first day
\non the job” understanding. How this plays out for faculty is that
\ncourses contain prescribed information for students to learn and there
\nisn’t much cognitive space for extra. You’ll teach what you are told to
\nteach, and nothing more.<\/p>\nNot In Control<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n In a traditional university, one faculty member usually designs the
\nsyllabus, teaches the course, and then makes and grades the assessments.
\n At WGU, those roles are split into 3 separate departments (ah, there’s
\nwhere the word ‘department’ is appropriately used). So there is a
\nproduct development department that designs what should be inside a
\ncourse (and a series of courses; a program aka<\/i> a major), picks the learning resources aka<\/i> textbooks, and creates the assessments aka<\/i>
\n tests. Said another way, they make the syllabus. Mentoring is where the
\n faculty are; they teach the course. Mentoring is the face, voice, and
\nheart of the course. Course faculty write the emails, help struggling
\nstudents, call the students, form relationships, and become the
\nstudents’ greatest ally as they complete the course. The assessment
\ndepartment creates, maintains, and grades the assessments whether they
\nbe multiple-choice type exams, written papers, or portfolios. So if you
\nare considering being faculty, you will spend all your time teaching and
\n with students. For faculty that love teaching as the “best part of the
\njob”, you’ll be a good fit. However, if you have a hard time realizing
\nthat you will have almost no voice in the design and creation of courses
\n (no, you will not eventually teach one section of your favorite niche
\ncourse) and if you resent not being able to give out points for effort
\nor resent not personally investigating plagiarism, you will not be a
\ngood fit. Many would-be faculty members are sorted out right at this
\nearly explanation of the disaggregated model because they don’t
\nunderstand how they would be faculty and not be in control of their
\ncourses. So this leads us to the next concept– how time works at WGU.<\/p>\nTime<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n parallel with the understanding that semesters are called terms and are
\n 6 months long, not 4 months, is the understanding that in
\ncompetency-based education, it does not matter when Day One of a course
\nis and when Day Final of a course is. Any student will be at any point of a course at all times. <\/b>More
\n specifically, 1\/6 of the students will be starting during any given
\nmonth, 1\/6 will be finishing or trying to a course, and 4\/6 or 2\/3 will
\nbe somewhere in the middle of their learning. So during any given day, a
\n faculty member could be welcoming new students, helping a student get
\nready for the final, or encouraging students to continue their learning
\npath. If you are a faculty member that feels weak in an area of your own
\n content expertise (rare in Gen Ed, but it can happen), you will not
\nhave the luxury of brushing up before you arrive at that point of the
\nsemester. From the day you join a course, you could be expected to teach
\n any of the content from anywhere inside the course. It is very likely
\nthat you will serve in several courses, too.<\/span><\/p>\nWGU operates as a business, not as a university<\/span>
<\/h2>\n<\/span><\/h2>\n
For faculty, that comes with some positives and negatives. Future
\nfaculty should seriously contemplate these as often resignations within
\nthe first year of employment come from these areas listed below.<\/span><\/p>\nNegatives<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n It is true that at some point, you *may* be invited to be an SME in
\ncourse development, but that is usually a set of duties ADDED to serving
\n students first. Translation = more hours for difficult work. However,
\nsolving problems inside of courses is supremely satisfying because (in
\nGen Ed), when you solve a problem, you are literally helping thousands<\/u> of students actively within the course. <\/span><\/li>\n
\n As a matter of fact, no union support in any way. Faculty, as the human
\n element within the system, are often blamed and are the easiest to
\nchange, so get ready to swim in policies.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n With 6 month terms that run overlapping, the university never closes.
\nThere is no need to. If a student can learn (online), the university is
\nopen. Looking forward to one month off at Christmas and three months for
\n summer? Not happening for these faculty. Faculty that have worked in
\nboth elementary and secondary school seem to have the hardest problem
\nhere. I’ve seen many resignations in May as faculty realize that they
\nare not getting the summer off. (See positive #2, tho!)<\/span><\/li>\n
\n that means you will be rewarded or not for their<\/i> behavior. Students are
\n measured on their academic progress if you are course faculty. If your
\nstudents struggle, that is considered to be on you for employment
\npurposes. There is some limited acknowledgement that other departments
\ncarry some responsibility (rare to find at all in higher ed!) but for
\nthe most part, you will be measured in every way possible; phone time,
\namount of outreach, number of lectures given, quality lectures, etc. If
\nyou chafe at being held responsible for others, this is not the job for
\nyou. (See positive #3, tho!)<\/span><\/li>\n
\n Remember that if a student can learn, we need to be available to help.
\nMost WGU students are full time employees, which means they are fitting
\ncollege into *their* downtime, which becomes your on time (on shift). So
\n be ready to work at least 6 hours on a Saturday or Sunday and then 2
\nweekday evenings, which I defined as at least 3 hours after 7 p.m. local
\n time zone per week. I was always amazed to hear stories of new faculty
\nin the shuttle between the hotel and the campus on the first day of
\ntraining hearing *for the first time* that working a full weekend day
\nwill be considered a standard expectation. I tried to filter out
\napplicants that clearly want what I call “pick up\/put down” work. Those
\nare the faculty that have taught online classes before and <\/span>just expect WGU to be “more” online classes– how wonderful! Full time! Not adjunct! I get it. I understand the attraction. <\/p>\n
\n are the ones that tell me *with pride* that they give out their cell
\nphone number to students and are happy to “take a call from a student, even on a Sunday!<\/i>”
\n Uhm. No. <\/p>\n
\nSunday) and then not work when you are not on shift (i.e. Friday &
\nSaturday, and don’t check your email). More from me on the negatives of
\noverworking, but that’s for another day.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n This one is a good bridge over to the positives because what I mean is
\nthat your job will *look* like a regular job in terms of shift work. You
\n are expected to be one time. You are expected to be working when you
\nare at work. You are expected to get yourself out of work at the end of
\nyour shift. (Overworking is on you. This is salaried, you are not paid
\nmore for overworking; you are paid less, get that?<\/i>) You will not appear
\nto be “stirring coffee with little tiny spoons in little tiny cups while
\n wearing your corduroy jacket with the leather elbow patches” as I once
\nhilariously heard a description of traditional faculty. If you want to
\ndo that in your home office, though, have at it!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nPositives<\/span>
<\/h3>\n
\npositives because heretofore, I’ve made this sound like a terrible job
\nand that truth is that LOTS of wonderful faculty want to work here and
\nsome of them do! So what do they get?<\/span><\/div>\n\n
\n in higher education. WGU does a ‘best places to work’-type of
\nmeasurement every year or so and consistently, the consultants say that
\nWGU has one of the highest connections to mission from the faculty and
\nstaff ever measured within higher ed. I believe that. Faculty that want
\nteaching to be their highest mission LOVE working here. They find
\nfreedom in not having to constantly tweak courses, no publishing
\npressure, and no grading any papers or exams. Not one. No grading AT
\nALL. I call it: “you play for the student’s team.”<\/span><\/li>\n
\n This is magical. True, while traditional faculty may be involved in a
\nbinge-fest at the end of May (<-what’s up with that, trad higher ed?
\nWhat are you doing to your faculty such that they must drink themselves
\ninto oblivion at the end of the semester?), you’ll be able to jet to
\nEurope for 2 weeks in October. Or February. Or if your child is sick on
\nany given Tuesday, you can ‘not work’. We’ll cover for you. Good
\nmanagers create teamwork-based coverage. It’s gorgeous. At 5 years, you
\nget 4 weeks of leave in addition to holidays (you do earn up to this
\nalong the way). Most consider that quite good. (Extra tip: Disney World
\nin October is wonderful.)<\/span><\/li>\n
\n OK, so there are a lot of complaints thrown at higher education or
\neducation in general and a lack of tying teacher performance to
\nemployment is one of those complaints. At WGU, problem solved. You
\neither help your students get to graduation or you find yourself invited
\n to be happy working somewhere else. You are part of the larger solution
\n on this one.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n I can’t comment more about this, because just like in all jobs, it
\nreally matters who you are working for. Some schedules can be very
\ndifficult (i.e. working until 12 a.m. (midnight) local time and then
\nbeing back on shift by 8 a.m.). While you are expected to work fully
\nwhen you are on shift, you are not expected to work all of the time. You
\n are not a robot.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nThis one surprises some faculty that were used to being lone wolf
\nteachers. And it dawns on faculty over their first 5 weeks. The best
\nteams have been designed specifically by their managers to utilize the
\nstrengths and weaknesses of the team to survive. The pace of change is
\nlight-speed because there is little to no overhead of time (classes
\nchange overnight, not at semester breaks) or space (no buildings, no
\noffices, no classrooms) to worry about. Just like Hogwarts, while you
\nare at WGU, your team is your family. Teaching with colleagues right by
\nyour side has never been this good.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n