What do y'all think about the new changes for SSDs?

2015-10-19T14:42:54-04:00

The Army will be changing the the courses for the SSD modules, making them more interactive...
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/careers/army/enlisted/2015/10/18/army-review-ssds-after-soldier-complaints/74009226/

Response by SFC Stephen King made Oct 19 at 2015 2:55 PM

2015-10-19T14:55:44-04:00

http://www.tradocnews.org/category/straight-from-the-csm/

Above is the blog to express your opinion. I for one look forward to the change. This change will help with the monotony.

Straight from the CSM » TRADOC

October 19, 2015. Written by CSM David Davenport. Posted in Army Profession, Developing the Army, Featured, Frontpage, NCO education, School/Course Updates, Straight from the CSM, TRADOC CSM

Response by SFC Kevin Bazurto made Oct 19 at 2015 4:19 PM

2015-10-19T16:19:24-04:00

I for one, get more out of the interactive stuff, as opposed to the boring, read and click, read and click. If it engages our Jr Soldiers, and helps them to comprehend better, than I'm all for it.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2015 6:53 PM

2015-10-19T18:53:43-04:00

I personally HATE the interactive crap. Give me some info to read and then test me on my knowledge of it. The interactive lessons are almost all extremely easy to predict, besides taking forever to load. I usually run them in the background and then select the (usually correct) answer without knowing the scenario. It's multiple choice, not very hard. If they want to have interactive lessons, fine, but set them up so I can fast forward through them, reading captions, instead of wasting my time taking 3 or 4 times as long as it should to learn the material.

Drop some of the less important info, and focus on the History of the Army and NCO Corps. Why in the world does every soldier need to learn about Lean Sigma Six? What a waste of time and energy.

Response by CPL(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2015 7:36 PM

2015-10-19T19:36:23-04:00

This is not good. The more interactive they meddle with it the worse it will work, more downtime, and more system failures. Waste of resources

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2015 10:07 PM

2015-10-19T22:07:57-04:00

I think I am glad I am an Officer.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2015 11:24 PM

2015-10-19T23:24:01-04:00

It definitely needs fixing, I just hope they do it right. Recently I've noticed the Army has been pushing out these "interactive" training modules that are just a more expensive waste of time with non responsive interaction. KISS is the golden standard for us. They need to design the module for delivering the information and have the oldest, most crusty, most Plumley incarnate CSM they can find and have him sit through it. If that is successfully accomplished then it's ready for the force. (I would say a five year old navigate the page but Now-a-days they're better than most grown people with UI)

Also my biggest concern for a revamp is the Army forgetting the most important thing; who is using the application.
More often than not someone is sitting in an office in the company area hammering away at these courses. Yet the army keeps pushing out these heavy flash/Java interactive learning while most of us sit working away on outdated government computers and an outdated IE that won't load. I work in a spanking new half a billion dollar hospital and can barely get the computers to run the simple altha page.

Naw. It's great in theory, and needed, but I see it falling short.

Response by SGT(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 20 at 2015 2:20 AM

2015-10-20T02:20:39-04:00

I may be in the minority...but to me...SSD courses and leadership courses...do not make a leader. I've seen too many E4s promoted into the NCO Core whose only leadership experience were these courses...quite frankly they make poor NCOs.

Experience, being mentored and the opportunity to lead troops make a leader. I learned way more about being a leader shadowing my Squad Leader for a little while, seeing what he did, and then being placed in charge of a team and actually leading my team in the tasks they needed to do than I did SSD1.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 20 at 2015 8:46 AM

2015-10-20T08:46:37-04:00

Why aren't us NCOs teaching more of these courses ourselves? I'd rather have the experience teaching this in front of a class or be a student receiving this instructions as opposed to online training.

Response by SGM Billy Herrington made Oct 20 at 2015 3:54 PM

2015-10-20T15:54:32-04:00

I'm glad that I am done with them.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 21 at 2015 2:46 AM

2015-10-21T02:46:04-04:00

First time I did SSD I felt that it was programmed by a retard, next time I did SSD I felt it was programmed by a dummy, so maybe next time I do one I will feel like it was programmed by a barely competent programmer (at least it will be progress).

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2015 9:29 PM

2015-10-23T21:29:19-04:00

Does polishing a turd make it stink any less? The SSD program as a whole is written as if it were a post graduate dissertation. It addresses content that is not relevant to the NCO corps. If anything, retool the check on learning questions, ELOs and TLOs to focus on the dynamics of the commensurate rank associated with the SSD module. Commanders a reminder that 1, guardsman and reservists have to complete these courses using personal hours, often unpaid; 2, low density MOS NCOs already sacrafice hours of personal time for staff meetings, planning, developing training, and soldier development. Before you spill the taxpayers purse on any more programs, please evaluate whether your program is going to be the best use of what little time your soldiers have.