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The Best Online University in the West

Posted on Tuesday April 20, 2010 by

The unspoken motto of Western Governors University is “not to waste anyone’s time or money” as it has spent years proving to the population surrounding it that it is not another diploma mill online college.  The school now promotes itself as the best online university in the West, with its administration headquarters in Salt Lake City.  The school was founded 13 years ago by the governors of 19 states and has seen a surge in admissions after becoming an online presence, essentially tripling its student enrollment. 

The increase in popularity of online schools has been the direct result of economic instability, forcing many working adults to go back to school in order to find a more stable career choice.  However, WGU has maintained its distinction from these for-profit institutions and maintains its presence as a nonprofit school, kept running through the efforts of the 19 governors and tuition.  As a result, it struggled to achieve accreditation status, but remains within the top tier of accreditation, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the only online school to have this honor.  This type of move was designed to make the school stand out as anything but a diploma mill and a forerunner in the race of online education. 

WGU remains the largest supplier of math and science education graduates, many of whom go on to prosperous career futures in their respective teaching industries.  This is a shift from many other for-profit online degree programs who advertise futures in engineering or nursing; WGU sticks to the basics in education and has produced many top-level teachers for multiple urban school districts.  The school is additionally different from most online colleges and traditional colleges alike in that it does not require a specific amount of course hours from each subject, but instead requires students to demonstrate master of the subject through online exams or papers.  This new approach to teaching and learning works with students of every background, allowing them to take as much time as they need, or to alternatively complete their education in half the time.

This method of teaching is difficult to latch on to, but has produced many promising results over the years, making it a popular alternative to the four-year degree programs which require hours of busy work that is not necessarily helpful to real-world experience.  The school also offers competitive rates to its students, thereby allowing its students to save both time and money in an economy that may continue to prove to be uncertain.  This school truly has proven itself to be the best online university in the West, and possibly in the entire nation through its courses, teaching methods, and low costs. 

 

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