File:WGU-we are wise.jpg

Owl Wisdom

Western Governor's University

Education without boundaries.™

• https://www.wgu.edu/

Four online colleges. 60+ flexible degree programs.

The first university where all bachelor’s and master’s degrees are competency-based, with online courses designed in partnership with leading employers. We’re nonprofit, driven entirely by a mission to serve students—in fact, it’s right there in our name. We’re called Western Governors University because we were created by a group of U.S. governors, an innovative solution to their states’ demand for high-quality, outcomes-oriented higher education.

As of May 2022, the WGU has become the largest online college in the US

SJS / Steven J Schmidt, GreenPolicy360 Founder / Siterunner: I was asked by the Governor of New Mexico in 1996 to represent our state in the creation of the "Virtual University". In the 1990s, as a member of New Mexico's State Board of Education, I could see future opportunities more clearly in my roles on the state's technology council and with educational technology. At the time I was responsible for oversight of bringing the Internet into some 900 schools and I welcomed the role to create a new educational vision -- an online, accredited university. In my travels in 1969/70 I had become impressed by the new UK "Open University" and realized in the 1990s that online networks could provide new media access to top-level professors and educators and be made available to every student geographically. The idea of bringing 'remote learning/distance learning' to all students in our state and states around the country and world was immensely appealing. My goal, also, was to make higher education affordable and in New Mexico I worked to propose a full-tuition college scholarship, which was funded with a state lottery scholarship program. The combination of access and funding came to be. Each of the original Virtual University founding states appointed a member to serve on the work group and we set in motion what was formally announced in 1997 -- the new Western Governor's University.

The WGU and NM lottery scholarship are well into their second decade of success now in 2019. Education is the key to opening doors for every student and lifelong learning is an opportunity all of us deserve. It is a torch we are all passing forward, education, delivering all that eye-opening, visionary education can bring ...

GreenPolicy360: We are 'into' Science. We focus on Earth Science and Critical Thinking

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Stats_-_Green_Research_%26_Science

• https://www.studocu.com/en-us/course/western-governors-university/critical-thinking-and-logic/3169855

PlanetCitizen.org / Earth System Science / Measuring "Vital Signs"

NASA: "You can manage only what you can measure"

 

GreenPolicy360's founder (and New Mexico's state representative from the Board of Education on the founding working group of the Western Governor's University reflects on 'Big Science' early day in the US Congress and Life of Congressman George E. Brown (D-East LA) who for three decades led Earth Science 'first generation' initiatives

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/George_E._Brown_Jr

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Salud to the WGU and Open Education!

• https://www.wgu.edu/about/our-story.html

• http://www.open.ac.uk/

(Via Wikipedia)

The Western Governors University is a private, nonprofit, online university based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The university was founded by 19 U.S. governors in 1997 after the idea was formulated at a 1995 meeting of the Western Governors Association.

In January 1997, 13 governors were on hand to sign the articles of incorporation formally beginning the new university.

In 2001, the United States Department of Education awarded $10 million to found the Teachers College, and the first programs were offered in Information Technology.

US Department of Education ... "the innovative student-first model used by this school and others like it has garnered bipartisan support over the last decade." In January 2019, the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid (FSA) office issued their final audit determining that WGU was indeed eligible to participate in federal student aid... The news editor for Inside Higher Ed, said the "much anticipated high-stakes audit" had begun more than four years earlier and the findings were "not a surprise to most observers", due to their reliance on a 1992 law that defines aid eligibility for distance education programs.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University

(Social Media)

• https://twitter.com/wgu
• https://www.linkedin.com/school/western-governors-university/
• https://www.facebook.com/wgu.edu/
• https://www.wgu.edu/newsroom.html

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Western Governors University

Looking Back at a Year When Education Turned to 'Distance Learning'

The COVID - CORONAVIRUS epidemic changes the direction of teaching

SJS/GreenPolicy360 Siterunner:

On August 25, 2020, in Clearwater, Florida, I'm appreciating reading of the success of the Western Governors University.

• https://twitter.com/wgu/status/1298284111887364097

I recall the start up of the new online/distance learning experiment we originally called 'the Virtual University'.

In 1995, as a member of the New Mexico State Board of Education, I was appointed to be the state's representative on the Working Group charged with the task of writing a strategic plan and implementing the financial and operational elements to launch what became the Western Governors University.

As a chair of the state technology initiatives, including policy for some 900 K-12 schools installing Internet infrastructure, I envisioned extending K-12 into a "K-16 education plan" with three main elements: 1) the first state-operated free tuition college scholarship program in the country; 2) for rural western states, robust distance-remote online learning curriculum and credentialing via a start-up WGU; and in NM a NewMAP, a New Mexico Accountability Plan which would gather performance data and enable, for the first time, education policy assessment and managing based on an information system we built.

All the goals were met by the time I left for Florida in 2000.

The concept of 'Stand and Deliver', as in the movie by the same name, was a banner for me personally.

Looking back now, 25 years later, it feels good to see the success of the WGU and the NM scholarship program.

And I've been told that the NM technology enabling NewMAP is still working, being updated, and producing trendlines over time.

Data counts!

SJS

And so it goes... stepping up for another day, another challenge

Education is changing as today's generation of students bring digital experience and a networking skill set that is new and unprecedented. They are described as "digital natives" who grew up in a digital/online/Internet world.

We are acting with vision as educators as we create the WGU and a curriculum of online educational opportunities that reach out, engage, motivate and inspire today's students to succeed and go on to change the world for the better.

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Online Education: It's Becoming an International Capability

Online Education, It's Time Is Here & Now

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Digital_Citizen

SJS / Surrounded by ideas and knowledge, a virtual feast of plenty. A Tip of the GreenPolicy360 hat to the OU on the 50th anniversary of the Open University / March 2019

• https://50.open.ac.uk/

• https://youtu.be/TrKIImWQejI

• https://twitter.com/BBC/status/1106888124796469248

Where you start in life shouldn't limit where you go

We are a movement... We visionaries and game changers

We are the fuel of imagination

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The Critical Importance of Science & Facts

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Good_science_needs_good_data_.png

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Stats_-_Green_Research_%26_Science

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