Everything else is going to be min $40k bachelor or $20k+ Masters but even Arizona pricey online deg is cheaper than this article or Florida U, both have real curriculum not extension school shenanigans
They work on a competency based model where you either take a test, or do a project/paper (or both) for the class to pass it. If it takes you 3 weeks to study and pass the test it takes 3 weeks, if it takes 2 days you can pass the class in 2 days. The major benefit though is that you pay a flat price for a semester and then you can do as many credits as you want in that semester for a flat fee, so if you want you can get 24 credits done in one semester.
Additionally this isn't an ITT Tech or DeVrye type scam where they just push you through, a lot of the classes are based around industry certs as the final test for the class, and they give a through grounding in a lot of areas.
The flip side is they are very focused on practical job skills and not so much theory, I personally think it results in a more well rounded engineering student who is able to work in Networking, Software Development or Systems Admin reasonably competently.
Again I am a fun I recommend it, I wish everyone would start doing it because I think it is a game changer. Feel free to AMA if you have more questions about it.
I am about 75% through the program and for someone who has been in the field for a while, it is really good. A lot of classes have just been taking a quick test to prove competency, but the discrete math and computer architecture classes were really interesting and useful.
That said, I'd be slightly hesitant to fully recommend it to someone who had zero prior programming experience. The fact that there are no assignments and only a handful of courses that require projects means you can graduate without having written a ton of code, and the code you do write is somewhat disjointed - a few Python courses, 2 Java courses (with a heavy emphasis on JavaFX), and a random C++ course that seemed pretty out of place. I don't that is the worst thing in the world, but if someone comes in cold and just checks all the boxes to get through the program as quickly as possible, they may find themselves ill-prepared for interviews and their first job.
What exactly is the course content like? From previous online courses I've taken from Coursera/Pluralsight/other platforms video lectures seem to be the the norm which I actually really hate, I rarely attended lectures and instead would just read the material, turn the HW in, and come in for quizzes/exams. Watching and listending is just not the way I learn, something about reading it makes it sink it better. And do they still require you to buy additional textbooks or is all the necessary content included in the course modules?
How engaged/competent are the instructors assigned to the courses? If I have questions is it easy to get a hold of them, and do they actually know the material enough to be able to adequately explain things and guide students to better understand the material?
The way you pass a course is through an assessment at the end - either a proctored multiple-choice test or some sort of project you complete and have graded. A few courses have both. For the ones that have a test, there is a pre-test you can take at any time to see how ready you are for the test - for the most part they've been relatively close to the actual tests.
I haven't needed help from instructors very much, but when I have had questions they've been pretty responsive. They are also fairly responsive on the "chatter", which is a terrible, limited chat/forum-like thing for each course.
Its more geared like a trade school, online, at a fraction of the cost. Get people into teaching, nursing, business and IT, as fast as possible and cheap as possible.
Many of these workers are less impacted with a 30k loan (same as a car) than a 100-150k school loan.
I know a few people who worked at minimum pay jobs and WGU was an option to get a degree and not go into debt for life.
Thats how I heard of it, and looked into it, and was rather impressed with the courses, cost and speed.
I was even tempted to sign up and pass the basic courses quickly, as I've been in IT for 30 years, and get a degree cheaply. Plus learn some new skills.