About WGU Faculty

About WGU Faculty

The faculty at WGU is committed to WGU’s unique, student-centric, competency-based approach that places the greatest emphasis on student learning. Because learning at WGU is personalized, we do not use typical online classes that are dependent upon fixed schedules or group pacing. Instead, each student is guided and assisted through a personalized learning experience by faculty and staff serving in different capacities:

Student Mentors
For each student, the primary faculty support is a personally assigned Student Mentor. The role of the Student Mentor is to provide advice, coaching, and support from the moment an individual becomes a student to the time he or she graduates. More specifically, Student Mentors:

• Provide information on programs, policies, and procedures.
• Assess students’ strengths and development areas to help them develop a plan of study.
• Provide feedback on assessments and recommend learning resources.
• Help students to sustain motivation and maintain on-time progress to their degree.
• Recommend appropriate student services.

This support involves regularly scheduled academic progress conversations weekly and active involvement in other aspects of the student’s academic career. While not an expert in all subjects, the Student Mentor guides the student through the overall program and offers coaching, direction, and practical advice.

Course Mentors
Course Mentors are subject matter experts who support students as they engage specific sections of the WGU curriculum. Their experience and training is specific to the courses they support. They are knowledgeable and can address any issue that might arise related to a course, a learning resource, or an assessment. Specifically, Course Mentors:

• Bring WGU courses of study to life with students via one-to-many or one-to-one forums.
• Provide instructional help (proactively and reactively) and facilitate learning communities.
• Provide content expertise for students who are struggling with course material.

The type and intensity of instructional support varies based upon the needs of each student in a particular course, from help with specific questions that arise to more fully engaged tutorial support.

Program Faculty
Program faculty at WGU are academic experts who can serve in multiple roles, including as program managers, assessment and curriculum developers, and academic program council members. Specifically:

• Program Councils—which include outside experts from academia and industry—oversee and approve curriculum, identify new programs for development, and define program competencies to be in line with the demands of today’s employers.
• Program Managers are responsible for the overall quality and relevance of their college’s degree programs.
• Curriculum Developers develop domains, competencies, and objectives for each component of our degree programs. They measure product excellence through feedback, employer acceptance, and graduate success, and continually evaluate and improve learning resources and assessments.

These faculty members work alongside the Course Mentors and Student Mentors to facilitate student learning and success.

Evaluators
Evaluators are subject matter experts tasked with reviewing assessment submissions in a fair and unbiased manner to determine if competency has been demonstrated.

A Diverse Group of Qualified Faculty
As of July 2012, WGU employs over 1,100 full-time faculty, plus over 200 part-time faculty, serving in one of several faculty roles. About 85% of student mentors and over 98% of course mentors have earned a graduate degree. For course mentors and academic program management, that typically means a Ph.D., Ed.D., or other form of doctorate or professional degree.

WGU's headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the university has offices in Phoenix, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; Seattle, Washington; and Austin, Texas. Many of WGU’s faculty and staff, however, work from their homes. See where WGU's employees are located.