Does the current Structured Self Development course system efficiently promote Professional development?

Leaders in my last unit were constantly under fire about the unit SSD tracker.  I believe if you want to be competitive, you'll find a way to complete it.  Otherwise, the Army is looking for cuts through UCMJ, APFT failures, Body Fat %, and RCP is just as important.  I say let the first line supervisors inform the SM and help in any way possible, but a lawful/direct order shouldn't be the way.

SFC Jozwiak,

SSD can lead to a stronger force. It shouldn't necessarily be forced but it should be highly encouraged. It was published in the last E7 promo board E6-E7 that is, all E6s that have not completed SSD 3 will not be looked at. Because of this, it should be highly encouraged for the E4 and below to complete SSD 1. I don't know who all has seen that one but the modules and training lessons in there number greatly. It will take a while to complete them all. Anyone who does not want to get promoted... There is a door, don't take up a slot that others could use to get promoted through. That and there is a massive force reduction going on right now, they could add themselves to that one as well. 

I learned quite a bit from them, i took all of them just to see what they were all about. as with any set of classes some of them needed adjusting but over all i was very impressed and learned a lot from them. 

In order to complete ssd you have to downgrade to Internet Explorer 9. You can't use anything else to complete the program. 

I think it's intent is great...however in an online form it stinks to high heaven. While in SLC, I had many classmates admit to just clicking through the slides and taking the tests multiple times until getting a passing score. They didn't learn anything. Someone somewhere chose to do this instead of going through the "phase 1" traditional classroom setting of each NCOES school to save money. I think perhaps the course content and testing should be proctored. This would help to insure that NCO's aren't just checking the block. Heck, they might actually learn something. 

Hi, as a former officer, I am not as familiar with SSD and its evolution.  Can someone here elaborate on what the desired training goals are for SSD?  I see there are multiple phases, etc. -- are these for all NCOs, certain ranks, positions, etc?  Thanks, as I would like to learn more and understand everyone's points better.

I completed my SSD-3 in 18 hours while I worked in the office working on records for the next board cycle. Months later I noticed some of my fellow NCOs were registered for SSD-3/SSD-4 and were given a week to complete the course.  It was hard to take this course serious when this self paced course must be completed in 3 yrs from date of registration and then directed to complete all the modules in a week. I would have enjoyed it more if it was on Blackboard/Adobe DCO and had interaction with my peers.

I completed SSD1 early last year. I started before it was made mandatory and finished it after I got the email.  80 hours of instruction in two weeks. My eyes and ears were bleeding, but instead of taking the easy way out (wiki answers) I took notes during each module and used them during the quizzes. I didn't come from a military background and I didn't know anyone in the military when I enlisted, so I found the course informative.

Terrible. You nailed it when you said the website is non-user friendly and the doctrine has been rescinded or outdated for YEARS!

I think this shares some similarities with completing online college courses. If you are invested in your military career as much as you are in college when you are completing those courses, SSDs shouldn't be treated any differently. I think the leadership has recognized it to be very difficult to be able to get EVERY individual into certain training courses and this is one way they can all everybody to be able to get training in. It really is a "Get out of it what you put into it" type of training. For the younger Soldiers SSD one is very helpful. My Soldiers are all intelligence analysts. The military writing style block of instruction is extremely helpful in establishing a baseline for their report writing to do their job. It goes more in depth when you complete ALC Common Core and SSD 3. I believe they are great tools if emphasis is put on them. 

Personally I think we officers could stand to have a few thrown our way.  Learning should never stop.

I completed SSD 4 while I was deployed and it was good information.  I hadn't attended a NCOES school since 2003 so it was a good refresher for me.  I took my time and got as much out of it as I could.  I actually enjoy learning so I thought it was time well spent. 

I just recently completed SSD IV. Some of the information covered was familiar to me already so it wasn't too bad. Generally appropriate for what I should know and/or be concerned with. Having the links to the publications covering the lesson topics was helpful. There were a few modules that covered information I believed to be irrelevant to either my current or next rank or to my current or future duty descriptions. I agree with others that the web system is slow. Painfully slow. I read fast and waiting for the slides to allow me to proceed with each lesson was annoying.

It is the biggest waste of time and money.  Not sure why the army decided to use online courses (much like ALC phase 1) but it doesn't help us as leaders to simply Google the answers and not actually learn/retain the information.  Honestly, I would prefer to do things the old school way and have this taught in a classroom.  You're actually discussing things with an instructor and obtaining new ideas from your peers.  It's complete crap and they should get rid of it.

I think that SSD comes from a decent enough idea, the problem is implementation. Commands are requiring Soldiers to complete SSD on the commands time table, which is usually an arbitrary quarter. So what happens is Soldier do not even attempt to do SSD in a manner in which learning is the goal. They are simply trying to get it done to get command off their backs. The other problem that this causes is NCOs lose a method of determining which Soldiers are motivated. Because Soldiers are required to do it all at one time by the CoC it vanillas the whole concept. So when these same Soldiers are enrolled in ALC CC or SSD 3,4, etc they do the same exact thing they did with SSD 1.

Waste of time, I don't know anyone who is actually reading or retaining any of the information. It is a check in the block long ass assignment. Even if the answers at the end where changed to fill in the blank no one would retain the information. It would be seek the answers via google, pretty much like it already is.

Honestly SSD 3 wasn't that bad.  Some of the information was refreshing and it was nice to see a writing portion.  I found that the only way to really pass the tests were to pay attention and do the class.  Over all it was probably the best online training I have taken so far.  Granted that is like being the tallest midget but still not a bad class over all.  

What about Army Reserve Soldiers, they get paid for completing SSD. Should they be forced to complete it if they get paid.

Seems to easy to me. Just google the answers.