WGU D370: IT Leadership Foundations

Why IT Leadership Foundations Comes So Early in Your Program

WGU D370, IT Leadership Foundations, is an introductory course that appears near the start of several WGU technology and IT-management degree paths. WGU's course description frames it as an overview of organizational structures, communication, and leadership styles as they play out in IT organizations, and it introduces the "power skills" that separate effective IT professionals from merely technical ones: time management, problem solving, and emotional intelligence. Just as importantly, the course asks you to look inward — to explore your own strengths and interests and connect them to a career in technology. There are no prerequisites, which is exactly why so many students meet it in their first term.

Direct answer: D370 is completed through a performance assessment — written tasks graded against a rubric by WGU evaluators, not a proctored multiple-choice exam. Take the strengths self-assessment your course points you to, then write directly to each rubric requirement in plain, specific language, addressing every bullet by name. The rubric, not the course reading, is what your submission is measured against.

If a leadership course inside an IT degree makes you roll your eyes, reframe it: this is one of the lower-stress courses you will take, and it is a chance to bank an early win, build momentum, and practice the exact skill — decoding a rubric and writing to it — that every other performance assessment at WGU depends on. You may also see this subject discussed under the course code D194; student materials circulate under both codes and cover essentially the same ground, so check your own degree plan for the code that applies to you.

What the Performance Assessment Actually Asks of You

Unlike an objective assessment, there is no question bank to memorize here. D370 is assessed through written work submitted to WGU evaluators and graded against a rubric. Based on the published course description and consistent student accounts, expect the work to center on:

• A strengths self-assessment. The course has students complete the CliftonStrengths assessment and then reflect in writing on their top strengths — what they mean, how they show up in your work, and how they connect to leadership in IT.
• Goal setting. Expect to write professional development goals in SMART format (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound), tied to your strengths and career direction.
• Communication and leadership analysis. A further task commonly involves analyzing communication in a workplace or meeting scenario — identifying what went wrong, which leadership and communication principles apply, and how you would improve the outcome.
• Core concepts from the course material. Organizational structures (how IT teams and companies are arranged), leadership styles, emotional intelligence, and time-management and problem-solving frameworks supply the vocabulary your written analysis should draw on.

Task details, scenarios, and rubrics are revised by WGU from time to time, so treat the rubric attached to your task inside the course as the single source of truth. Anything a guide — including this one — says is secondary to what your rubric asks for on the day you submit. And because this is written work reviewed for originality, everything you turn in has to be your own: reusing another student's submitted paper is an academic integrity violation, not a shortcut.

Honest Difficulty: Light on Content, Strict on Instructions

Among WGU students, D370 has a reputation as one of the gentler courses in the catalog. Many report finishing it in days rather than weeks, and some do the writing over a single weekend once their strengths results are in hand. There is no timed proctored exam and no memorization grind, and the writing volume is modest compared with heavier performance-assessment courses.

That said, "easy" does not mean "automatic." The friction point is rarely the difficulty of the ideas — it is the discipline of the writing. Tasks come back for revision when a submission answers the spirit of a prompt while skipping a specific rubric element that the evaluator has to check off. If you are new to WGU's performance-assessment model, budget extra time for your first submission cycle: reading the rubric closely, drafting, self-checking, and then waiting on evaluation. A realistic plan is a few focused evenings; a comfortable one is a week or two. Compare that with a strategy-heavy business course like D081 Innovative and Strategic Thinking and you can see why students are told to schedule D370 early and use it to learn the submission workflow cheaply.

A Working Plan: From Strengths Report to Passed Tasks

Because this is a performance assessment, classic OA tactics like flashcards and practice exams matter far less than structured writing. Here is a plan that fits how D370 is actually graded:

1. Start with the assessment, not the reading. Open the task instructions and rubric before you touch the course text. Every hour of study should be anchored to a rubric line you can point at. Then skim the course material for the concepts the rubric invokes — leadership styles, organizational structures, emotional intelligence — rather than reading cover to cover.
2. Take the strengths assessment early. Your results drive the reflective task, so complete it on day one. When the report arrives, read the full descriptions of your top strengths, not just the labels, and jot down two or three concrete work or school examples for each. Those examples become the backbone of your reflection.
3. Outline by rubric bullet. Turn each rubric requirement into a heading in your draft document and write underneath it. This sounds mechanical, and it is — deliberately. Evaluators work through requirements one at a time, and a submission organized the same way is far easier to assess.
4. Write SMART goals that are verifiably SMART. For each goal, be able to underline the specific outcome, the number that makes it measurable, the reason it is achievable and relevant to you, and the date attached to it. If any of the five elements is implied rather than stated, state it outright.
5. Use course vocabulary on purpose. When you analyze a communication breakdown or a leadership decision, name the concept you are applying — "this reflects a participative leadership style," "this is an active-listening failure." Tying your analysis to course terminology demonstrates competency far better than generic workplace advice does.
6. Self-grade before you submit. Read your draft against the rubric the way a skeptical evaluator would: for every requirement, highlight the exact sentences that satisfy it. No highlight, no submission. That single habit is what keeps most avoidable revision requests from ever happening.

The rubric-first writing skill you build here transfers directly to every other performance assessment in your program, and the communication concepts overlap with D268 Introduction to Communication, so nothing you do in D370 is wasted effort.

Where D370 Submissions Go Wrong

• Writing an essay instead of answering the task. Beautiful prose that drifts past a rubric bullet still comes back for revision. Structure beats style here.
• Vague goals. "Improve my communication skills" is not a SMART goal. If the rubric asks for measurable and time-bound, a goal with no number and no date cannot satisfy it.
• Listing strengths without applying them. Restating strength definitions from the report without connecting them to your own concrete experiences reads as generic, and it is the part evaluators most often ask students to deepen.
• Ignoring professional communication requirements. Tasks are also judged on clear, professional writing. Typos, missing citations for borrowed ideas, and unlabeled sections cost revision cycles.
• Underestimating turnaround time. The writing may take days, but evaluation and any revision loop run on a clock you do not control. Submitting early protects your term plan.
• Treating it as skippable fluff. Rushed, careless submissions tend to cost more time in revisions than a deliberate first pass would have taken. Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

D370 Readiness Checklist

• Can you locate every requirement in the task rubric and point to the exact paragraph in your draft that satisfies it?
• Can you name your top strengths from the assessment and give a real, specific example of each one showing up in your work or studies?
• Can you write a goal and prove it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound — element by element?
• Can you describe two or three leadership styles and say when each one fits an IT team?
• Can you explain what emotional intelligence means in practice and how it shapes the way a leader handles conflict?
• Can you analyze a flawed meeting or workplace exchange and propose concrete improvements using course concepts?
• Can you describe common organizational structures and explain how an IT function fits within them?
• Have you proofread your submission for professional tone, citations where needed, and clean formatting?

FAQ

Is WGU D370 an OA or a PA?

D370 is assessed through a performance assessment — written tasks graded against a rubric by WGU evaluators. There is no proctored objective exam for this course, so your preparation should focus on understanding the rubric and writing clearly, not on memorizing facts for a test.

How long does D370 take to complete?

Many students report finishing D370 in under a week, and some complete the writing in a weekend once their strengths results are available. Build in buffer for evaluation turnaround and a possible revision, though — a comfortable end-to-end estimate is one to two weeks.

What is the CliftonStrengths assessment and do I have to take it?

CliftonStrengths is a widely used strengths-profiling assessment from Gallup, and D370 has students complete it as the basis for the reflective task. Your course materials explain how to access it, so start there rather than buying it independently — and take it early, because the written task depends on having your results.

Is D370 hard if I have no leadership experience?

No prior leadership role is required or assumed. The tasks ask you to reflect on your own strengths and apply course concepts to a scenario, so examples from school, part-time work, family responsibilities, or team projects all work perfectly well. Students consistently rate this as one of WGU's more approachable courses.

Why do D370 tasks get sent back for revision?

The usual culprits are skipped rubric bullets, goals that are not fully SMART, and generic reflections that never connect strengths to real examples. Self-grading your draft against the rubric before you submit catches most of these while they are still cheap to fix.

What should I take after D370?

That depends on your program, but the skills carry forward everywhere: rubric-driven writing feeds every later performance assessment, and the leadership and ethics themes resurface in courses like C717 Business Ethics. Browse the rest of our School of Business guides or the full guide index to plan your next move.