Real books, class layout

Most of the classes are online. You are able to go through the coursework at your own pace, however, many classes come with pacing guides to help you complete the course between 4-8 weeks. Basically, it's dependent on you! Some of the courses may offer cohorts, which may be live courses/webinars to help you with the material. Or you may watch pre-recorded videos of previous cohorts. I didn't use the videos initially, but started recently and find them very helpful.

In regards to testing out of a course, that is highly dependent on you and your knowledge of the material. It is recommended you take the pre-assessment to gauge your knowledge of the material. If you achieve a score above the "cut score" or passing score, then you can request that your mentor approve the final assessment or you can continue to study in the areas in which you are weak.

I too, also prefer text books vs e-books. However, e-books are included in the cost of the tuition, which is part of what makes WGU affordable.

The program for the e-books is "Bookshelf". You can download the program on your computer, i-phone, android, tablets etc. There are also options where you can have the text read to you, which I find helpful during driving. Study whenever you can, right? :) You can also highlight and create study notes within the program.

To answer your question. Yes, you can order the paperback books for the class. Again, this is at a separate cost and not included in your tuition. The title, author etc are all provided in the course outline as well as the bookshelf app. So far, I have found that only the nutrition book can be ordered directly through bookshelf. However, many of the others can be found on amazon or chegg etc.