Western Governors and Transfer Nursing credits

allnurses Guide · Apr 20, 2015

You can talk to them and ask what they are looking for in these classes and see if they will let you submit a copy of your course syllabus from when you took them to prove you have met requirements already. It may simply be that your previous course of study did not meet the rigors required for a degree at WGU.

If not, you will be able to test out of these courses very quickly as this is a competency based program. If you had the courses already you will not have a difficult time passing them.

empatheticRN · Apr 20, 2015

You can talk to them and ask what they are looking for in these classes and see if they will let you submit a copy of your course syllabus from when you took them to prove you have met requirements already. It may simply be that your previous course of study did not meet the rigors required for a degree at WGU.
If not, you will be able to test out of these courses very quickly as this is a competency based program. If you had the courses already you will not have a difficult time passing them.

Thanks I just spoke with the counselor and she said they do not accept nursing classes from other RN-BSN programs. She even said an appeal wouldn't do any good because they will not consider. It shouldn't be hard to pass, its just that I have to do the work over and rewrite my papers. I can't just resubmit my papers because that would be plagiarism.

allnurses Guide · Apr 21, 2015

I had a feeling, but I didn't want to speak out of turn in case I was wrong.

It is a great program and you will do fantastic. If you are on Facebook, find the WGU RN to BSN page. It is HUGELY helpful! Good luck!!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

Thanks I just spoke with the counselor and she said they do not accept nursing classes from other RN-BSN programs. She even said an appeal wouldn't do any good because they will not consider. It shouldn't be hard to pass, its just that I have to do the work over and rewrite my papers. I can't just resubmit my papers because that would be plagiarism.

Nonsense. Plagiarism is using someone else's work and passing it off as your own without attribution. Your own work is your to resubmit if you like. Rework a little of it if it makes you feel better or it meets the assignment more closely, keep your other thoughts to yourself, and you will be fine. I took an honors English class in high school and placed into honors English my freshman year in college. We studied the same plays and our paper assignments were the same. Of course I submitted my work again. I learned it, Aeschylus hadn't changed much in a few thousand years, and I got a better grade in college on it than I did in my honors class in high school. :)

WGU gets to collect more tuition from you with this policy (quelle surprise!), but that doesn't mean you can't turn in your own work to them.

allnurses Guide · Apr 21, 2015

GrnTea, you are wrong on this one. ï¿½ï¿½ All academia recognizes it and holds students to its standards, including WGU. With all papers now run through plagiarism software, it is far more easily caught than it used to be.

What Is Self Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

http://www.du.ac.in/du/uploads/research/06122014ithenticate-selfplagiarism.pdf

WGU allows for 30% match up on worded material, allowing for direct quotes from other sources, including self authored. More than that results in bad joo-joo.

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

Nonsense. Plagiarism is using someone else's work and passing it off as your own without attribution. Your own work is your to resubmit if you like.

Wrong. Self-plagiarism is actually a thing.

Self-Plagiarism: Is it Really Plagiarism?

Ask a Librarian Frequently Asked Questions: Can you plagiarize yourself?

http://www.du.ac.in/du/uploads/research/06122014ithenticate-selfplagiarism.pdf

https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/09/07/self-plagiarism-ethical-shortcut-or-moral-scourge/

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

WGU gets to collect more tuition from you with this policy (quelle surprise!), but that doesn't mean you can't turn in your own work to them.

Many universities do not allow transfer of their core nursing courses, but only pre-reqs. It's not unique to WGU. But quelle suprise! that you would take this opportunity to get a dig in.

And no, they really don't collect more tuition by requiring the OP to repeat these two classes. They can easily be completed in less than a month, and since they charge tuition by the 6-month semester, rather than by the credit or class, the OP can easily complete them without going into another term.

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

This is fascinating stuff about "self-plagiarism" I wouldn't have believed it wasn't just a money-grab.

Would your previous work have to be published to be subject to plagiarism?

If you resubmit and properly cite you're OK?

If you substantially re-work and resubmit you're OK?

allnurses Guide · Apr 21, 2015

The whole goal in education is to learn. Even if subject matter is similar, one cannot prove learning is taking place by regurgitating something already done.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

I think I've now heard it all. "Self-plagiarizing"?? While I can appreciate that an instructor wants you to learn from the assignment that has just been assigned, if I have already learned from that same question or essay assignment, I have a hard time picturing what is wrong with using my OWN WORK to demonsrate my understanding of said assignment.

The point is to learn. I learned. If an instructor chooses to ask me something for which I have already prepared a response, that's doesn't seem reasonable that I shouldn't USE my prepared response. It's MY WORK.

Now, if it's published, I can see some problems with re-publishing as new material. But if we're talking a classroom assignment.....it seems utterly absurd.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 21, 2015

This is errant nonsense in the context of repeating a class. The link provided notes that this refers to infringing on someone else's copyright. Quotes below are from links above.

However, while the debate on whether self-plagiarism is possible continues, the ethics of self-plagiarism is significant, especially because self-plagiarism can infringe upon a publisher's copyright.

This can happen if you, say, publish a paper in a journal or other that retains copyright (this is common). Then if you want to reprint it, you have to have permission from the copyright holder. This is generally not unreasonably withheld, but it has nothing to do with the issue at hand, a school paper.

Building and expanding on your own work (or that of others) is legitimate academic activity and is encouraged. The issue is acknowledging what has gone on before. As a student, it is also an issue of learning something new and improving one's skills, which is clearly not what's happening if you simply "recycle" a paper or speech.

If you are repeating a course, you are NOT going to be learning something new. This has nothing to do with "building on (previous) work." If it's a paper on the themes of stormy weather in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," there's nothing new to be said. If you wrote that paper last year and now you're in a different program and get the same assignment, where is the harm to ANYONE if you resubmit it? Note, there is harm in violating copyright. This is not that.

Unlike traditional plagiarism, which much more clearly-defined rules and consequences, self-plagiarism often exists in a gray area, one where it is hard to determine what action should be taken or even if anything wrong was done.

(my emphasis)

This entire discussion is almost completely related to published works (including art), not to school papers, and based on opinion, not settled precedent. Indeed, all the clear definitions of plagiarism make reference to abusing others' work, not your own, either explicitly or implicitly. I also note that there seems to be a lot of, um, plagiarism going on in the discussion.

If you take a double major, as some of us did, and one particular course is required for each one of them, do you take it twice? No, of course not. If Monet paints the same damn waterlilies and the Japanese bridge a dozen times, is that "self-plagiarism"?

Seriously, stand back a bit from the reflex outrage and look at this rationally. This is a solution to a nonexistent problem dreamed up by somebody with not enough to do.