mentor

instructor

enrollment specialist

clinical instructor

manager

Western Governors University

As someone who was a tenured academic at a traditional university for more than a decade, I made the change to WGU for a number of reasons, most of which are still true about the institution.

First, it is geographically flexible; you can live wherever you want as an instructor since it's online. Second, the competency-based, disaggregated model means that, as faculty, you can work directly with students to help them understand the material and perform well on assessments. You don't have to do lesson plans, write syllabi, or (and this is key) grade assignments. You are usually working with individual students who have sought out your help rather than lecturing to a room full of blank stares. You're also working with a motivated student body, many/most of whom might not have had access to quality higher education without WGU. The fact that I work at a school created to make higher ed more accessible in terms of geography, scheduling, and finances contributes greatly to my sense of having social justice be part of what I do as an academic. Students are usually paying for their own education and have a specific reason for seeking a degree, and are therefore more motivated than typical traditional college students. It's also interesting to be working with people who share an interest in trying new things and breaking out of traditions that might not be serving us well in higher ed. And, almost without exception, my colleagues have been great.

The negatives: while you don't need to create syllabi or grade assignments, this is because you, as an instructor, have virtually no say in the content of the course you teach; "product development specialists" (who will likely have little-if-any subject matter expertise) create curate course content and assignments. And yes, you only usually teach one single course, which can get monotonous. No lectures to bored students, but you might get increasingly bored yourself as you answer the same handful of questions day after day after day to individual students you meet with, questions which are rarely about the content and more about clarifying assignment instructions or test-taking strategies.

More problematic is administration (which, at WGU, is called "leadership"). Most of the leadership at the university have no significant experience as bona fide academics themselves. They come from the ranks of corporate America or, if they do come from higher ed, have been exclusively or primarily full-time administrators for much/all of their careers, not teachers.

While it's not stated directly, I had a sense that the people who actually do the work of a university--teaching students--are seen as the low-level drones of the organization. While technically not-for-profit, the organizational culture is extremely corporate. As a result, they lack of understanding or interest in precisely those things that are important to people who have pursued education as a vocation.

This corporate culture spills over into the attitudes toward the students. Measures of how well the university is educating students are how quickly students move through the course and degree programs and how much more money they make if/when they graduate. These are not unimportant concerns, but they often seem to be seen as the *only* important things (as opposed to, say, coming up with creative, meaningful curricula or finding new ways of fostering learning). If it can't be quantified, it doesn't seem to count (literally and figuratively).

It would help WGU if the administrative wing of the university understood they are sitting on a gold mine of doctorate-holding faculty who have self-selected to come to a university that is open to new ways of doing things. This would be an invaluable source of paradigm-busting ideas about revolutionizing what higher ed can be and for whom. But instead of being tapped for ideas, faculty are relatively powerless tools for implementing practices designed by people who have spent little if any time actually teaching.

I've written more words about the negative than the positive not because the former outweighs the latter, but because the positives are simpler and easier to communicate. There are some good things going on, particularly in making higher ed more widely available.

But I also want to be honest about the downsides and disappointments that a prospective faculty member might discover at a university where the sine qua non of education--the teacher/student interaction--often seems to be seen as a low-level and trivial phenomenon while the "real" work is done by middle-managers who want to experiment with whatever new, shiny corporate leadership principles they've learned about in a tome they picked up at an airport bookstore.

Some will find WGU an eden; some will find it endlessly dispiriting. I suspect many/most will find it, as the headline states, a mixed bag.

As an intern, I was expected to be at school by 6:50 am and remain until 3:15 pm.  I taught students in normal academic classes. I worked with a teacher who provided oversight. 
The day began with early morning work in Math, ELA, or Reading. 
There would be an assignment visible on the WhiteBoard. This allowed the students to see their schedule for the day. I made certain to circulate throughout the room as the students worked. At 10:15 am, we would take a short 15 minute break. This would include a bathroom break, where I would accompany small groups of students to the restrooms. The teacher would remain in the room. We would return and have small group instruction. This would be in either Social Studies or Math. As Math is a stringent part of academics today, we put a lot of work into the Math area. We would have projects and at times, we would have tests. At 12:10 pm, we would go to lunch. We stayed there until 12:40 pm. We would use the restrooms and the students would proceed to "specials" which were music, PE, or Art. During this time, there would be either a planning period of 45 minutes within the classroom pod (there are 4 classes in each pod). Each teacher and intern would present lessons, inquiries, or make suggestions considerate of the classwork and where each student or group of students were according to the plan or IEP set forth. At 1:05 pm, I would leave, as would the other 2 interns to pick up our students and return them to the classroom. We would then either go outside, if PE hadn't been the Special of the day for the students, or we would have free time. This free time consisted of small group conversations. We delved into our students' lives to check for inopportune activities. Also, the home lives of the students are important to know and to understand. The diversity of the home life lends itself as to why the student may not have done homework or was not behaving as well as was expected. 

I learned that working within a Pod opened the door to many ideas and gave me the chance to work with other Mentors. I enjoyed my time here. I had many responsibilities and I learned to utilize classtime wisely. The biggest lesson I learned was that, although silence is golden at times; there are going to be days you do not want a "quiet room." You want discussions and enthusiasm. You will open the door to thinking outside of your own experiences and to acceptance of diversity if you allow the students to discuss differing ideas. 

I learned that setting a schedule is necessary, but a good teacher will always understand there can be distractions or even accelerations. Diversity is not just in learning; it must be utilized in teaching methods.  I learned I am a good teacher. I can often connect with the student who doesn't push himself or sees herself as an outcast. Many times, i was called into the Office to talk or discuss with "wayward" students how to get onto a track of learning and to set the goals that would make them successful. Had I not been chosen by teaching as my profession, I would return to school to earn a degree in psychology. 
The hardest part of the job was seeing a student not master a task. I would really have to control the instinct to step in and either lead the student to success or actually assist with completing the task. The best part of the job was hearing so many encouraging words from the teachers, many who were NBCT (National Board Certified Teachers). These are the teachers who have gone that extra step to take classes or to join associations and to earn the distinguished acronym. These teachers earn extra pay.

Culture at WGU centers on the idea of mentoring others, providing coaching, and helping students achieve their goals. It not a perfect place to work; weekend shifts are required of faculty; pay is more than a living wage for most areas of the country; yearly schedule is more akin to a business than a university (from a faculty perspective, the work is continuous, other than recognized holidays, there are no scheduled breaks, no winter break, no spring break, no optional summer school); evening and weekend hours are required for student-facing roles; time off for health reasons and vacation time accrues biweekly and is dependent on your length of employment. On the positive side, health benefits are excellent (better than my spouse's state-sponsored plan), there is a good amount of autonomy in faculty roles, WGU will match contributions to your retirement fund up to a certain amount (6% I think), and you get to interact with a diverse student and employee population. 

My personal experience as a Course Instructor (WGUs term for the person responsible for helping students master the course material) was useful for that particular period of my career, but I eventually left due to burn-out. This was primarily due to continually remediating students once they had failed their assessment at least twice (there are no grades, just pass/fail). While it is rewarding to see students succeed, a large proportion of my daily interactions consisted of focusing on reteaching the same, predictable material. Further, many students resisted or resented working with an instructor. Some saw needing help a personal deficiency; some were not committed to the time and effort required to perform at the university level of competence; some used manipulative techniques to avoid doing the work; and others seemed to simply not be self-motivated enough to keep their appointments. 

Course Instructors are required to teach the curriculum developed by Instructional Designers who may or may not have domain-specific education in their assigned area. They rely heavily on outside subject matter experts to write and review the substantive material and then cobble it together in a course of study. The idea of academic freedom extended to instructors' choice of delivery, but ultimately it was the instructional designer who had final decision making in the course of study. Out input into the process was purely advisory. This led to some questionable theoretical explanations and clearly factual mistakes in two of the courses in my department, leading to two years of back and forth attempting to correct all of the mistakes. All of these issues contributed to my departure from WGU. I would say that 85 to 90% of my colleagues at WGU love their job or at least get enough satisfaction that sustains their inherent, giving nature as educators. Despite my impressions and challenges, I think that WGU can be an excellent place to work for most people looking to mentor our future career professionals and you should absolutely learn more about the role and WGU from others.

All I can say is this is a call center position. They monitor A LOT OF STUFF. So you get micro checked a lot. If you enjoy call center jobs you may like it though

Pro- its a great product! Really helps students and is awesome idea. 
-remote work is really nice sometimes! 
cons- call center toxic envirment- I got in trouble for- calls being to short, not doing enough outbound, not saying a phrase perfectly on a call, forgetting to ask a question, not saying have a nice day at the end of the call, Missing one call out of 50 answered ones, etc. I hope i'm not being dramatic but it really was a lot of stuff. It really wore me down.

 Every time I thought I was doing well and had my own space to help students I got a 30 min discussion every week on something.( you meet each week with manager.) Really disapointing, I felt like wgu represented the toxic perfectionsm micro manage envirment you usually see in other call centers. 

pay- I actually think 22 an hour is great. But you cant go up very easy. you get raises based on if you dont get a negative review( most people only do that), queue time, and if every phrase you say is perfect in the call for call evaluations. - raises should come from a manager like a normal job. Metrics are nice but as the full determining factor with know discussion or negation that  is wrong. Workload is not taken into consideration

workload- on some weeks I would get a call 50 seconds after I got off the phone. And it did that almost all day. for 8 hours. Some months though are slower. 

career advancment- they do hire within the company but without a masters degree or 5+ years experiance you cant really get any jobs): They dont have much oppurtuntity for batchelor holders. I even heard from one ec that he was adviced to quit his job as a coucnilor because he would be more likley considered for other roles. Another one told me that is what he did. Ultimatly its really hard to move up unless you want to get a masters or have extensive work experiance in some field. Know other entry level jobs really

training- They kind of just rhough you in. That means you will get angry calls and bad experiances more often due to not knowing what your doing. LOTS and LOTS of details. They have like over 500 acronyms and i'm not joking. You have to memorize how to update accounts, work with admissions, transcripts, military, job benifits, admssion requirments etc all while people think your job is easy lol. 

Overall I would tell most to sadly stay away. I know its tempting with remote work and 22 hourly but It really kills your mental health. I even had one employee say hers was so bad she was quiting and others too. Its sad to say but I think the managers and others benifit off of the stress and oppression and mental struggle of the enrollment councilors. So naturally they are usually not much help. Though you could get a good councilor who is more laid back possibly.  If you like call center work then this is a good one but outside of that I'm serius when I say this is not a councilor job where you meet with students and have fun. Its a heavily detailed oriented job with lots of critisism and rough days. The entire system is heavily abusive in my opinion. 



I loved my job. I worked 6 days a week, every week for over a year. I was only part-time, but I worked full time hours plus some...I enjoyed being at work. I enjoyed working with students. Literally, for the first year and 2 months, I lived to go to work at WGU. I managed myself and I am a particularly good self-starter...so it was a cake walk for me. There wasn't any pressure on the stats you had to hold- just that you needed to be earning your pay. I carried awesome stats, including appointment show rate, which was one of the highest on our team, as well as my "save" being magnificent...I was good at this job.
 However, All that changed when my manager switched positions and the new manager was a former call center director or some other fancy BS and our jobs were turned upside down. Now we became a "Call Center" in the making, and new policies on this and the other- as other reviews have said "the pay is low" which, I will say is very low compared to other call centers, and the opportunity for advancement is an impossible set of loops and hoops- also, if you speak up and ask questions or disagree with any new changes- you become known as "disagreeable, or difficult", even "insubordinate." The new expectations were ridiculous and asinine for the  amount of money they were paying-that didn't get updated or changed- basically, this company was the ideal place to work for a person like me.... and then it just wasn't feasible- I was turned into a leper by management and my team, and being micromanaged, tired and annoyed at how much time I wasn't getting paid for (new manager would change my time cards and when I told HR- noone cared), plus being told I would be able to move to a full-time status by former management (I needed the benefits and I was already working the required hours plus some), and  having that retracted by current management...even though I was told that my request was approved when former was still current- disappointing. 
I asked how to put in my 2 weeks notice (after over a year and a half of working 50-55 hours a week), they fired me. No particular reason was given- in fact no reason at all was given... Still confused at the whole thing. 
 
   The good news is if your mother works in HR, you get to do and say anything you want and there is no consequences...So, get your momma hired if you want to have your voice and opinion matter.


The school is fantastic-just the Admin and other employee suck.

For the position, in healthcare, the pay is EXTREMELY LOW for a master's degree level position.  You're required to do ~45 hours a week.  It might be on par for teachers, but for healthcare, they start at 20-40k lower than an in-field position.

What is the job?  It sounds great, 'mentoring students in your field'.  This is not the case.  There are two positions WGU is actively recruiting for:

Program Mentor: You have a degree in the field the student is pursuing.  Your job is to call your 100 students weekly to ensure they can adult.  Yes.  You're helping adults take responsibility and complete their degree.  You help them set goals, then you follow up weekly/biweekly to see where they are for those goals in the class, then you set new goals... until they graduate.  You have successfully baby-sat your adult!  yay!  You are tracked and scored based on how well the students do, and if they drop etc. you are considered responsible.

Course Instructor:  You're not really the course instructor of anything.  You have a terminal doctorate degree in the field your student is pursuing.  The course is already made by a team of people in the field.  You're a specialized tutor for the class.  You have little say in course structure, no control over content or exams.  You are an over-qualified tutor.  If you're in traditional ed. they pay is likely on par.  If you're in healthcare, the pay is likely tens of thousands less than an in-field position.

Student obsession.  This is the motto/vision of WGU.  It's great... you're pushed with 'student obsession' and many really do want students to succeed.  However, when I mentioned that you really should talk to students about student loans and debt, I was quickly shut down. "this may be the only way they have" etc.  If you're really student obsessed, you should inform them of having to pay a 20-80k loan off when they're done with school, and the reality thereof.  That's student obsessed.  Brushing over this tells me they're a bit more numbers obsessed than student obsessed (numbers for enrolled students, students graduating etc).

Overall, it's great because it's work-at-home.  If you're in education, pay is likely on par, hours may be a bit high 40-50 hours per week with varying times required at times, including evenings/weekends.

If you're in healthcare, I can see this being good for retirees or burnouts.  The paycut and hour requirement makes it a tough-to-consider position.  You get to work at home, there is some flexibility, but you have a bit more hours, much less pay, and you're more-or-less hand-holding adults to complete their degrees.

Being a mover and shaker enabled me to fully appreciate the self-paced design of these on-line classes. I typically spent 8 to 12 hours a day working on assignments. Consequently, I earned my Master's Degree in less than one and a half years.

-I learned discipline and self-sufficiency working independently.
-I learned that motivating others is one of the most important skills an instructor, supervisor, or manager can have.
-I learned to observe, analyze, interpret, and accurately report behaviors.
-Designing measuring instruments required learning what attracts and appeals to subjects, workers, students, and others.
-Understanding peoples' learning styles was essential in designing the measuring instruments mentioned above.
-I learned that although I enjoy being part of a team, I am a dynamic producer working solo.
-I found that I could create a body-of-work worthy of award.
-I learned that details fascinate me.
-I learned that I could make dull, potentially boring data, into fascinating, page-turning reading.
-Because my mentor was my link to success, I learned that even when working independently, I am never truly working alone.
-Management was minimal and this worked well for me. My personal mentor scheduled regular weekly calls with me and I had the ability to call or email her, if needed, anytime. There were other course mentors that I occasionally spoke with, but generally, the system design was so efficient, I generally worked well unaided. 
-Another WGU student mentored me in the creation of my online research classroom. He corresponded via email and phone until I was up and running. He asked nothing in return for his assistance.
-The hardest part of the job was ensuring that all internet connections remained functional. I was required to have a special optical monitor in place when taking my exams. A monitoring company watched my every keystroke and heard my every breath while I completed every exam. I lost the internet during one of these exams, which typically took several hours to complete. Although I was able to eventually complete the task, it was always nerve racking not knowing if the internet would be constant for the duration of the exam.   
-The most enjoyable part of the job was the freedom of setting my own pace. I did not have to wait for classmates to catch up or for the end of the semester to complete another class.

I wonder how this university exists but it does and somehow is accredited regionally. They pound into the employees that all that matters is the numbers and to keep students enrolled and progressing.  If students withdraw or do not pass courses, it is the fault of the instructors and mentors (advisors).  You are evaluated on your numbers, not the feedback of your students or ability to serve a large student list properly.
WGU does not care about the quality of student support, only that all of your students (and student loads exceed 120 in most cases in some WGU programs) pass their courses.  Staff is held 100% responsible for students who drop, withdraw, don't answer on weekly calls, have life events that make them have to withdraw, or simply do not do their work or answer the phone when weekly support calls are made to them.  
There is little to no encouragement or support from management AT ALL, only a heavier student load plus being told that you are not "making your numbers" in spite of you taking care of all of your students (again 120+ who all need weekly required phone calls). There is no regard to staff workload and they are always demanding more and more without considering how support of EMPLOYEES effects STUDENT support. 
No raises, no bonuses, ridiculous amounts of work.
The draw for students to this university is price and the flexibility and ability to work ahead in classes and move in courses if they finish their term early---WGU IS REMOVING these flexible, attractive policies for working adult students.  WGU's canned explanation:  "It increases good student experience".  When asked "how" you get no response. 
If you like sales, take this job.  If you are about "transforming the lives of your students", don't bother.

While the mission statement, aim, and purpose of Western Governors University is absolute gold, there is much to be desired for internal operations.  The aim of WGU is to bring low cost, attainable, available any time any where, competency based, accredited, valuable education to the undeserved.  For the most part WGU accomplishes this mission.  However, internally, working for WGU is a messy story.  Many systems are broken and aging both student facing and internal.  We spend about 75% of each day manually compensating for automatic processes that are broken and receiving 0% support or development time.  Like many companies, WGU spends a great deal of time developing the new and shiny with little concern for the crumbled foundations upon which they are built.  While new systems are intended to be a solution for technical debt, they are hoarding all resources away from current production systems.

In many departments management is inexperienced, self serving, and or political.  We are encouraged to be independent thinkers but then our decisions are undermined, disrespected, and many fear that their jobs are in danger if they don't tow the political line.  

Policy is vague and unwritten leaving much to be interpreted and invented at far too low a level.  Many attempts at organization and standardization are overridden as soon as it conflicts with the whims of some VIP or friend of a VIP.

We are encouraged to be team players, while the rest of said team offloads their work onto others.  

A culture of fear has entered into the ranks as Orwellian double speak and hypocrisy is used to silence any dissenting opinion.

Many at WGU put up with the abuse because they believe in the mission.  The mission is worthy of praise and honor.  The abuses and hypocrisy is worthy of great disdain.

As a long time faculty member,  they have a wonderful mission and purpose. What started as one of the most amazing positions, has turned into a stressful nightmare full of micromanagement,  pettiness, 
favoritism,  and constant change. Management changed and we expect reorganizing, but not into a top heavy company that no longer focuses on student success. Managers that aren't familiar with how competency based education works,  or the inner workings of WGU, senior managers that rule in a dictatorship,  managers that discuss employees to other employees,  ... it has become a hostile environment and everyone fears retaliation. 

There's little chance for moving up unless you choose to level up.  The equivalent to a career ladder but with no formalization, protocol,  definition, or expectation. And no structure for compensation. There's no communication between levels.  Occasionally,  we learn of changes from students after they have occurred.  

They stress self-paced as their motto,  yet employees are penalized if students don't complete the minimum number of CU's each term or they graduate early.  Mentors call weekly,  biweekly,  sometimes twice a week.  Especially if the student isn't making progress as fast as the university dictates.  It used to be about individualized care for each student... no longer. 

As someone who dearly loves their students, started and stays employed for the students, genuinely cares about the students.... it's disgraceful how numbers driven it has become and how many really good employees are leaving.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mentor 31 salaries reported	$66,319 per year
Instructor 67 salaries reported	$86,791 per year
Enrollment specialist 3 salaries reported	$40,253 per year
Clinical instructor 10 salaries reported	$47.36 per hour
Manager 9 salaries reported	$92,786 per year

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