WGU Missouri Earns National Recognition with Two Awards

WGU Missouri and its parent university, Western Governor’s University, recently received national recognition for their innovative approach to providing high-quality, affordable education to working adults. The university was named as the recipient of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) 2017 Institutional Service Award, and was also honored with the Online Learning Consortium’s 2017 OLC Digital Learning Innovation Award (DLIAward).

The 2017 CAEL Institutional Service Award recognized WGU Missouri for providing outstanding programs and services for adult learners. The award comes on the heels of a study commissioned by CAEL, in which the organization found that adult learners benefit from WGU Missouri’s learning model. The findings were presented by CAEL to students and staff in Kansas City in July.

“Since its founding, WGU has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ensuring that every student has access to higher education by providing innovative learning solutions, like online learning and competency-based education, that encourage adults to complete a degree or credential on their terms,” said CAEL CEO and President, Pamela Tate. “WGU is an inspiration to us and to the entire higher education community.”

The competency-based university was also recognized by the Online Learning Consortium for advancing undergraduate student success through the adoption of digital courseware. WGU was one of three institutions and ten faculty-led teams selected from among 60 submissions in the second annual OLC DLIAward competition. WGU was recognized for its role in advancing undergraduate student success through the adoption of a specialized course that focused entirely on the affective domain of learning and resulted in improved student outcomes.

The course was implemented in WGU’s College of Health Professions with nursing students. More than 10,000 nursing students have completed the course, which was the result of a decade of research and independent evaluation. More than 76 percent of students who have completed the course report they are more motivated to graduate. Subsequent to this course, students are showing greater success in completing challenging courses and are progressing academically at higher rates.

WGU was selected for the OLC award after two rounds of review. Details about each of the 2017 OLC DLIAward honorees can be found online at https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/about/olc-awards/2017-DLIAward-recipients. Information about the CAEL award can be found at www.cael.org.