C170 - Data Management Applications - In the bag!!!

Did I say I was going to buckle down?  In good news.....I coach an all girls Lego robotics team.  We won first place at the regional NASA Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap challenge in July and a trip to NASA/Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Between all the excitement of that, back to school, Girl Scouts, robotics team, planning for Florida and some big projects at home and at work, I just got off track. REALLY OFF TRACK!

I started on C170 Data Management Applications in June before I was even done with my last term.  I got bored reading the text and went on to Statistics, which I passed the second week of this term (previous post).  Then I did almost nothing for 2.5 months.  That's HORRIBLE!!!!!!  Wasteful, irresponsible, etc!  There's just so much going on in my life, I struggled to commit and get back in gear.

My mentor was very kind and gave a few well deserved nudges.  I spent about a week really focused on the C170 course material.  I took the multiple choice pre-assessment (practice test) on Thursday and passed just fine.  I took the multiple choice OA yesterday evening, passed just fine.  It was very similar to the pre-assessment.  I took the simulation lab exam just now, and passed 100%.  It is identical to the labs in the course material.  Really!  A WEEK!!!  I could've been done with it 2 months ago!  <bangs head against wall for stupidity>.

What's next?  Well....I have no time to spare at this point.  I have 3 classes to complete in 12 weeks.  It can be done, but I've still got all of my obligations and a week long trip to Florida before the end of term.  So, C173 'Scripting and Programming Foundations' here I come.  I started last night and got through the first chapter and a half.  When I enrolled in this course, I received a link to a 14 day plan for passing the class....um, YES PLEASE!  I need to get this done before I leave in 27 days.  What I've read so far, I could've easily skipped, so I'm hopeful this will go quick.  In a perfect world I will be done with C173 and starting on C859 'Intro to Python' before I go.

Moral of the story, don't be like me and waste tons of time making essentially no progress.  Time is money, and less time equals stress.  But if you do find yourself in a similar situation and you just can't dig yourself out, contact your mentor, they will help you with goal setting and motivation.  Remember why you're on this adventure.  And remember, if you don't show ANY progress (at least logging in and viewing course material) in 2 weeks, you'll get a warning letter.  At least, that's what is supposed to happen, there's a new policy on it at WGU.  I always did at least did that much so that wouldn't happen to me.

One more down!  17 classes to go.  Credit wise, including my transferred credits, I am at the half way point.  60 credits left out of 120.

C955 - Applied Probability and Statistics -- Finished!!!

So, I got a little to crazy with things in my personal life and couldn't focus on SQL queries anymore.  I switched gears and launched into Applied Probability and Statistics.  This is the new course, replacement for C459 Intro to Probability and Statistics.  I enjoy math so I felt this would be easier to focus on at the moment.  I love the flexibility that WGU gives me to change gears mid-class in a term if I feel the need.  As you can see, the class dates I specified for my degree plan in my last post, are already out of sequence, and it's OK.

I activated the course on Monday (today is Thursday).  I spent about 6 hours on the first 5 chapters out of 7.  I love math, so it was no problem to wiz through it.  I took the practice test at about 3:00am early Tuesday morning and passed with room to spare.  I'd read in the Facebook groups that chapters 6 and 7 are heavily weighted on the test and that's where I fell a little short on the practice exam.  I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evening on chapter 6 and this evening I only had enough time to quickly review chapter 7.  My exam was at 9:00pm.  It took me about an hour of the 2 hours allotted.

It looks like there are some great cohort videos pre-recorded for this course, as well as handouts for them.  I didn’t use these resources.  I only used the online text and included quizzes.

I think this was the most confident I've been so far out of all of my exams.  That might be the last time I feel that way, we'll see.  :)  I'm thankful to be done.  Funny note:  My scoring grid was almost exactly the opposite for the Pre-Assessment.  I had 100% on all the math, and just short of "exemplary" on the last 2 categories.  I'm tired, and it's possible I may have rushed a little and been careless on a couple of the math questions.

I am ready to spend the weekend camping.  I may spend some time on SQL next week before I leave for a long weekend with my girls' robotics team for a competition out of town.  I can also download the textbook to my iPad and take it along, but I doubt I would study on the trip.  If not, definitely time to buckle down and knock out Data Management Applications (C170) when I get back.

My Program Got an Update? Now What? Third Term Planning with Changes

Nothing is certain in life except change (and death and taxes).  I knew going in to WGU that programs were occasionally updated.  Being a computer major, I recognize and appreciate the importance of keeping my coursework in line with current trends and technologies.

I remembered reading in my original degree program plan two important tidbits about program changes.  1) You don't have to change your program to the newest version and 2) Changes won't increase the amount of time it takes to complete your degree, aka no additional credits.

So, what changed?

General Education courses:

• Intermediate Algebra (3) + College Algebra (4) => Applied Algebra (3) = -4 cu
• Integrated Physical Sciences (3) => Integrated Physical Sciences (3) + Natural Science Lab (2) = +2 cu
• Survey of US Constitution and Govt => American Politics and the US Constitution = 0 cu Δ
• Intro to Probability and Statistics => Applied Probability and Statistics = 0 cu Δ

Computer courses:

• Data Structures => Data Structures and Algorithms I = 0 cu Δ
• Ethics in Technology -- new course = +3 cu (waived due to meeting double math requirement already) -- this was where "won't increase completion time" came into play

My total credits did not change and my time to complete my program did not change.

That was the first hurdle.  The second was, turning on the new degree plan wiped out my degree plan.  All the courses I had meticulously thought through and put in the order I wanted and even set dates for, gone.  Thankfully I had saved screenshots last week.  I spent this evening rebuilding my degree plan.

In addition to my program requirements changing, WGU changed their policies a bit starting July 1, 2019.  Here's the summation to the best of my understanding:

1. Weekly meetings with student/program mentors is no longer required - If you want a standing meeting great.  If you want occasional meetings as needs arise, great
2. The change made in December where you can't have more than 14 days of inactivity is still in effect
3. Students no longer need a course mentor to turn on a pre-assessment or get approval for a first attempt at a PA/OA -- this will speed things up, especially for students that keep odd hours
4. Courses cannot be activated outside of your current enrollment - you can look at the overviews, but cannot activate to read course material or take pre-assessments unless you enroll in the course in your current term.  Some are worried this will slow down their "acceleration" through their program.  At this point, this does not worry me, I think my acceleration window has passed, my remaining courses will take what they take time-wise.  We'll see if it impacts me later.
5. If you do pull in a course but are unable to finish, you are allowed to take a 30 day incomplete, and finish it at the beginning of your next term.  This is meant to help accelerators with the above mentioned issue.  I don't intend to use this "safety net" as I'm not sure what my employer would do with my tuition reimbursement if an "I" showed on my transcript.

So, here I am, starting my third term with WGU.  I'm excited about my upcoming classes and cautiously optimistic about the changes to everything.