Structured Self Development | U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy

CSM (Join to see)
I have completed SSDII and SSDIII already. I did it while I was deployed to Afghanistan and over my flight hours for the month. I feel the Army has put a lot of time and effort on the online education as a way to reduce costs of classroom education. It has been 18 months since I completed both of my Structured Self Development courses and I probably couldn't pass one module test or even remember what was covered at this point in my career. However, it has been much longer since I had "BLC" and I can remember the names of the instructors, and the majority of the classes taught. I can effectively write an Award, MFR, and a sworn statement because of the training I received while at Fort Bliss NCO Academy.

My point is, when you have a good instructor you get a lot out of the education. If I made a 50 question test and covered the topics of: Accident Avoidance, Anti-Terriosm, Combating Trafficking, Composite Risk Management, Cyber Awareness, and Personal Recovery and I was forced to grade on a curve, scores around 30 would be your 90% range not 60's. With that, I am not in favor of online education. My suggestion would be to have it as a resident course at every installation for leadership development. Most of what is covered already by some units. As leaders we are to train Soldiers, when that stops we are no longer leaders.

I thought it was ineffectual. I have only done SSD 4, but I did not like it. Incorporate it in SLC. Hell, half my SLC was wasted staying at the wall. If this was incorporated in the course, it would have filled the time gaps and the information would have stuck with me better I think. I can't speak for 1-3.

The problem with SSDs is that they are the same information online as they are at the Leadership Courses. SSD1 specifically; it is the equivalent of taking an online college course only to then be required to enroll in the same course the next semester as a lecture. Such a waste. Standardizing leadership courses and uniformity in training is a great idea, but it is inefficient in execution. Obviously, with ALC and SLC the added MOS training changes this paradigm. However, there are always better ways. While it is the Army's mantra to not come to a leader without a proposed solution; the problem is that in regards to SSDs the Army and its leadership have made it clear our only option is to deal with it.