Arrell Technology

Author: austinarrell

  • 7 Tips for Completing a Bachelor Degree from WGU in One Term

    7 Tips for Completing a Bachelor Degree from WGU in One Term

    Western Governors University has an attractive education model for those of us who do not want to be buried under a mountain of student loan debt. Everyone that looks at Western Governors University’s competency based learning model can’t help but ask: Is finishing a Bachelors degree possible in a single 6-month term? Well, it depends.

    My Experience at WGU

    In 2016 I graduated with an Associates degree from a local community college. Rather than going back to school for my degree in computer science, I taught myself to program and opted to get Information Technology certifications instead. After 4 years in IT I decided I wanted to go back and finish out my degree. I found WGU, did my research and ended up graduating just 5 months after enrolling in my degree. I started with 33% of the degree satisfied by transfer credits from my AA, IT certifications and Sophia learning.

    In my time at WGU I averaged 1 week per class with my longest class (Discrete Mathematics I)taking 4 weeks. At the same time, during my 5 enrolled months I sold my house, moved across the state and started a new job. There was a 25-day period where I was searching for a job (during the move) but I otherwise was working 40–45 hours per week. Every free moment I had was dedicated to working on school.

    I hope that by sharing my experience I can help clear up some confusion and help prospective students set realistic expectations. Completing this degree in 6 months is a large commitment and might not be for everyone. If you are dedicated to putting in the work, the 6 month Bachelors degree is very attainable.

    While my experience was focused on IT and Computer Science, these tips should help you no matter what degree you are going for.

    #1 – Do your Research

    If you are reading posts like this you are on the right track. Go out and research everything you can about how the school works. Print out the course descriptions and read them, google the course names and read what people have to say.

    Watch videos where people share their experiences. Doing this helped me understand the flow of classes and mentally prepare for the grind that was ahead of me.

    Doing this research made me nervous and cut down my confidence. I began to think that this goal would not be possible and started to think that I was being delusional. Don’t fall into this trap. If you are dedicated, learn quickly and do your due diligence you can absolutely complete the degree in one term.

    #2 – Create a Pregame Plan

    WGU has transfer credit partners and provides tables of all the classes through third parties that they guarantee will be accepted as a transfer credit. Look at this list, sign up for Sophia Learning for $100 a month and complete as many classes as you can.

    WGU Transfer Partners:
    https://partners.wgu.edu/home

    Sophia Learning feels a lot like WGU, the main difference is that tests at WGU are proctored and require you to be on camera. See how many Sophia Learning classes you can complete in a single month.

    Computer Science Specific Info:

    I highly suggest you transfer in Calculus I at the very minimum.

    At time of writing Sophia Learning can satisfy 12 out of the required 37 classes. That translates to 37 out of the required 117 credits. That means you can satisfy 30% of the degree before you even begin, even with no previous college degree! Obviously this will take you some time, and it stretches out that “6 months” goal, but the real win here is for your wallet. Both WGU and Sophia Learning are competency based and allow you to pay a fixed fee where you can complete as many classes as you want. Sophia Learning is $99/month while WGU is closer to $670/month. Even if it took you 6 months to complete these classes you would still have paid less money than if you were enrolled in WGU for a single month.

    Once you have your transfer credits worked out it’s time to do the less satisfying work. Study for the IT Certifications that are included in the degree. Both of them have publicly available guidelines for much of what you need to know. Study as if you are about to take the test, this will make the content familiar to you once you are actually ready. At time of writing there are two classes that require a certification exam:

    • Business of IT – Applications – ITILv4 Foundations
    • Linux Foundations – LPI Linux Essentials

    You can transfer in as many times as you want but as soon as you commit to the degree you are on the hook for the total cost of the term, and you are no longer eligible to transfer credits in.

    #3 – Cut out Non-Essential Activities

    Completing a Bachelors degree in 6 months is difficult. You need to be dedicated and set aside as much time as possible. Tell your friends and family that you will be very busy for the next 6 months. If you have time-consuming plans coming up, consider delaying enrollment until you are free.

    Selling your house, moving across the state and starting a new job are all examples of things that you should NOT do in the middle of your degree.

    I personally greatly enjoy summer activities and typically hibernate inside throughout the winter. This meant that for me, starting in November was perfect timing for me. If you enjoy a certain time of year more than others, you should plan your enrollment timing accordingly.

    #4 – Ignore the Doubts

    Throughout the process my confidence would rapidly bounce between “I don’t fail tests” to “I am never going to finish this class”. I was constantly influenced by the way that people reacted when I told them my plan. Additionally, every time I started a new class my confidence crashed because there was always so much to take in and learn. The rapid context switching can be exhausting and debilitating.

    I was working on Discrete Mathematics I and I met with a course instructor to go over a couple topics that I wasn’t picking up fast enough. At this point I had been in the class for around 3 weeks and my morale was approaching a record low. I thought that there was no way I was going to finish the degree in time because of this class.

    During my meeting with my instructor he said “I want you to set realistic expectations for this class, most students take 8–10 weeks to complete it. You should not assume that you can move at the same pace as your other classes.” That message really infected my mind for a few days. I ultimately took and absolutely crushed the test a week later. Do not listen to anyone who tells you something is not possible, even when the person is in a position of authority, tenure or respect.

    #5 – Foster a Relationship with Your Mentor

    My relationship with my mentor was my greatest tool in this journey. My mentor constantly offered me words of encouragement and boosted my confidence far higher than I could have alone. Every time I felt like I wasn’t going to make it she nudged me along and ultimately got me to the finish line.

    Nobody is going to do the work for you and nobody is going to hold your hand along the way. Your mentor’s job is to ensure that you graduate and you are making progress towards your goals. Be honest with them, open up to them and trust the words of advice that they provide to you.

    Your mentor is also your key to accelerating through content. Your mentor has to unlock each class for you and queue them up. My mentor was incredible and would frequently unlock classes for me on Sunday, knowing that I would grind through work on the weekends. Be vocal about your goals and ensure your mentor always knows when you intend on taking your next test or turning in your class.

    Your mentor hears feedback from all students regarding classes and has a plethora of knowledge regarding what has held students back and what has helped them. Ask them as many questions as possible and take the time to internalize what they say. Do not get discouraged when they tell you students struggle with certain classes, just prepare yourself and push through.

    I genuinely enjoyed checking in with my mentor and always loved to hear what she had to say. Since I put effort into our relationship, I cared about what she thought and I did not want to let her down. When I was feeling like I didn’t want to study, in the back of my mind I was thinking “I’d love to see how my mentor reacts if I finished this class today.”

    #6 – Use Your Study Time Efficiently

    When you get dropped into a new class it can be a bit of a whirlwind, especially when trying to accelerate. There is a ton of information, and it is difficult to know where to start.

    • Step 1: Use the course planning tool to get an idea of what’s to come. This is a great tool because you can actually use it before you are officially enrolled in a class. This can help you get an idea for which class you want to tackle next and can give you study ideas for when you are waiting on your next class to be unlocked.
    • Step 2: Assess your current knowledge. If you feel as though the course planning tool was easy, jump straight into taking the practice assessment (Step 5). If not, take some time to just google concepts that the questions were quizzing you on. Do not just google the questions, think about what skills you are missing.
    • Step 3: Read the auxiliary materials. Course search, Course Tips and Course Chatter are incredible tools that will allow you to get a very good idea of what you need to know, what students are struggling with and where you can go to seek out more resources. Additionally, your course instructors will send you a “Welcome email” that contains tips and often times has additional resources. By the end of this step you should have a list of important chapters to read.
    • Step 4: Skim the course content. Take at most 2 hours and skim every single (required) chapter of the book. If you begin to feel overwhelmed with a topic, jot it down and move on. By the end of this you should have a high level understanding of what you know and what you have left to learn.
    • Step 5: Take the Practice Assessment. Take the assessment in the same room where you will be taking the test. Put a camera on you and do not look anything up. If you get exemplary or mid-high on competent, schedule the real test for the same day. If you do worse than mid competent, dig into the review and re-read all the relevant sections, this time slow down a bit.

    Don’t be afraid to take your time on stuff that needs more time. The math classes are hard and are going to take longer than Intro to IT. Don’t get discouraged, take breaks and push hard.

    #7 – Just Take the Test

    Determining how much you need to study before taking a test or turning in an assignment is one of the more difficult things to balance when accelerating at WGU. WGU allows you to take a test up to a maximum of 4 times. Each time you fail, you will need to meet with a course instructor to go over a study plan. Often times they will assign you mandatory homework before they will reopen the test for you.

    I did not fail any of my tests as I have a habit of over preparing. I believe that this habit cost me a lot of time. If you wait until you feel 100% certain that you are going to pass then you will end up never taking any tests. Once you have a decent grasp of the subject material and did okay on the practice, especially if you are 2–3 days in, just take the test.

    In my opinion, attempting the first try early only stands to buy you time. If you pass, great! Time to move on. If you fail, you will be handed a study plan by your course instructor which can serve as a map to the finish line. Also, if you fail you probably need to study more anyway and that extra guidance can be a great boon as sometimes if can feel like you are flailing through content blindly.

    Wrapping Up

    Completing a Bachelor Degree in 6 months wont be easy. You are going to have to be dedicated and ready to fill all of your free time with studying. That said, it is a rewarding experience that will save you an incredible amount of time and money on your pursuit for a degree. Take the time to plan ahead, take it seriously and don’t give up. If you push hard enough you can make it happen. Good luck!

  • What is Active Directory?

    Active Directory Demystified

    When I was first attempting to get into IT Active Directory was perplexing to me. Active Directory seemed so simple to those around me but was a huge gap in my early IT understanding. The goal of this post is to give you a high level overview of Active Directory to hopefully save you from this same fate.

    This is in no way comprehensive and simply serves as a dip into the pool of what is possible with Active Directory.

    What is Active Directory?

    Active Directory is hosted as a service on a Windows server.

    Active Directory is at its core is a company’s employee directory. Think of it as a large, organized list of all employees and various information about them such as phone number, email, location, and their manager’s name.

    “Books Library” by Thomas Kelley/ CC0 1.0

    Digging in deeper, Active Directory also serves as the central source of user names and passwords for all computers in the company. Rather than having accounts “local” to individual computers, the account is created once on the Active Directory server. All computers in the company are “joined” to the Active Directory network which allows them to forward all requests to log in onto the server. If the user name and password is correct in the server the computer creates a local profile for the user.

    Why do we need Active Directory?

    Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you are the IT Director at a company with 2000 employees. Every employee has a desk with a computer that they log into. To promote effective use of resources the CEO asks you to allow all employees to log into any computer at any time.

    Without Active Directory, this would simply not be possible. You would need to create a user name and password for 2000 employees per 2000 computers. Additionally, if a single employee needed to update their password you would need to update that password on all 2000 computers.

    How do you organize Active Directory?

    I mentioned earlier that the employee directory was organized. How do you achieve this organization in Active Directory? Organizational Units (OUs) and Groups.

    Organizational Units are essentially folders to assist with creating a hierarchy and separating user accounts based on Location, Job function or something else. A common approach is to create OUs for each of your locations, departments and job roles. By staying organized with these OUs you can easily understand how many employees are in each department, location or role.

    Groups are another form of organization. Groups are a way to put users together where the lines aren’t as simple as the larger OU categories. Additionally, a user can only be in a single OU but they can be in many groups.

    Groups are commonly used as a way to provide access to applications and file shares.

    What’s Next?

    Dig in deep with Microsoft’s official learning path https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/active-directory-domain-services/

  • C Quickstart Guide for Programmers

    “Code Technology” by Markus Spiske/ CC0 1.0

    C as a second language.

    I have been writing code in some form for 11 years. Something that I do often is pick up another programming language in an attempt to learn new things and understand programming at a deeper level. When learning a new programming language there is always this period at the start where I want a quick start guide that will quickly go over the basic concepts of a language so I can start writing code straight away.

    This post will serve as that guide.

    Note: I am not an expert at C, I am learning along with you. I simply am curating the things that I have learned so that those the come after me can jump in a bit faster.

    Why should you learn C?

    • As of 5/12/25 C ranks as 3rd in the TIOBE index for the most popular language today
    • C excels at giving the programmer full control of the operating system and its memory
    • C is considered the lingua franca of the programming world, learning C can help you understand programming at a deeper level
    • Correctly written C is very fast and serves as a fundamental skill in systems and other low level programming.

    History of and Facts about C

    C Hello World Example

    Including this in a quickstart guide only as a way to give you a functioning program straight away and to see how some C code looks in action. 

    #include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    printf("Hello World");
    return 0;
}
Code language: C++ (cpp)
    • #include <stdio.h> – This line includes the header file for the standard I/O library. This includes the definition for printf.
    • int main() – The main function which serves as the entry point to the program.
    • printf(“Hello World”) – Prints out the text and adds a newline character at the end.
    • return 0 – Exit the program and return no errors.

    Data Types

    Data types in C

    • int
      • Range: -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
      • Size: 4 Bytes
    • char
      • Range: -127 to 127 or 0 to 255
      • Size: 1 Byte
    • float
      • Range: 1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38
      • Size: 4 Bytes
    • double
      • Range: 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308
      • Size: 8 Bytes
    • void
      • Used to indicate the absence of a value
      • Can only be used for pointers and function return types

    Variable Declaration

    How to declare a variable in C

    TYPE IDENTIFIER = VALUE;

    int main() {
    int age = 42;
    float cash = 5322.47;
    double pi = 3.14;
    
    return 0;
}Code language: C++ (cpp)

    Arrays

    How to create and use an array in C

    Array Declaration in C

    TYPE IDENTIFIER[NUMBER_OF_ELEMENTS];

    int main() {
    //Creates an array of type int
    //Contains 4 elements
    int ages[4];
    
    return 0;
}Code language: C++ (cpp)

    Array Initialization in C

    Initializing an array in C is very simple and similar to declaration.

    int main() {
    int ages[4] = {29,38,42,19};
    //You can omit the size when 
    //initializing on the same line
    int ages[] = {29,38,42,19};
    //Init all values to 0 (Or something else)
    int ages[4] = {0};
    
    return 0;
}Code language: C++ (cpp)

    Functions

    How to create and use a function in C

    Function Declaration in C

    [KEYWORDS][RETURN TYPE][IDENTIFIER](PARAMETERS)

    int sum(int num1, int num2){
    return num1 + num2;
}Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

  • You Need A Home Lab, Here’s Why And How To Make It Happen

    What is a home lab, why do you need one and how can you get started?

    What is a home lab?

    A home lab is a concept in the Information Technology field that describes a technology sandbox environment that allows a learner to get hands on experience with complex systems in order to gain industry skills and further their career.

    Put simply: Set up enterprise technology at your home so you have a safe space to learn how it works.

    Why do you need a home lab?

    Whether you are trying to land your first Information Technology role, or you are trying to move up from Service Desk into more specialized roles, a home lab is a valuable catalyst to a successful career.

    Setting up enterprise systems in your home allows you to get real experience configuring tools that are used to run businesses in the real world.

    The Information Technology field is competitive and if your goal is to excel then a home lab will give you a significant edge over those that do not take the time to prioritize one.

    What do you need?

    I am going to try to keep this guide as free as possible by leveraging trials and free services. The main exception to this is at a minimum you will need a decent computer.

    Additionally, the goal of this guide is to create a realistic, scalable entry point so as your knowledge grows you are able to add more services without making your previous investments obsolete.

    • Computer with Windows installed
    • Computer that will be used for your server. (All data will be wiped on this device)
    • Flash Drive
    • Access to the Internet

    Compute

    To get started you need a computer. This is the only time where spending a bit of money is unavoidable. The good news is that the computer you use can be of virtually any power level and age. If you have old computers laying around (including laptops) then you are good to go. If not, you will need to source one from somewhere.

    You are looking for as many CPU cores and as much RAM as possible. These resources can be spread across as many devices as you have on hand.

    Get creative with this, I personally use an army of Lenovo tiny form factor PCs in a cluster as they are silent, take up minimal space, and due to my career in IT have been quite accessible.

    Lenovo M700, 4 Cores, 8GB of RAM:

    https://amzn.to/3Yxrhy3 – $68

    A tiny form factor lenovo computer. Model: M700
    Lenovo M700 Tiny Form Factor PC

    Virtualization

    Next, you need to get an operating system installed that will serve as a foundation for creating and running virtual machines. Proxmox is the obvious choice here as it is free and is very similar to enterprise virtualization products.

    You will also need a tool called Rufus, this will allow you to upload the ISO onto the your USB flash drive so that you can boot to the Proxmox Installer.

    • Download the latest version of Rufus here: https://rufus.ie/en/
    • Plug in your USB flash drive
    • Open Rufus and Select your Flash Drive
    • Browse for the Proxmox ISO
    • Accept any prompts and click create with the default settings
    • Wait for Rufus to tell you it is finished

    A Word About Backups

    The home lab outlined here has no mention of backups. This is because a proper backup solution is going to cost money in the form of drives or cloud storage. A home lab by nature is supposed to contain non production data. If your home lab begins to become something that you care about then you should consider investing in a cloud backup solution.

    To be continued…