Whether in air, on land or sea, Marines are always looking for new and improved ways to train. Ripper Academy, 7th Marine Regiment’s latest training development, is a video streaming channel designed for Marines and sailors to view and share video content.
Ripper Academy, hosted within the MarineNet learning management system, provides instructional material prior to scheduled training or courses. This better prepares both learner and instructor so they may make more effective use of practical application time.
“Ripper Academy is managed by [Marine Corps University’s College of Distance Education and Training],” said Col. William Vivian, commanding officer, 7th Marine Regiment. “It’s a YouTube-like channel implemented to determine if short, high-quality videos can help accelerate skill mastery for a variety of things.”
The academy allows individual Marines the ability to upload and share video amongst all users. The system, regulated by a reviewing process, allows only unclassified video with clearly defined training and education value to be viewed.
So far, Marines have uploaded videos of professional military education classes ranging from how to operate a Motorola PRC-153 Integrated Intra-squad Radio to basic infantry tactics.
“The whole idea is to get Marines, especially sergeants and below, to get excited about Ripper Academy, to create high-quality videos and share their knowledge with their peers,” Vivian said. “The goal is to accelerate the maturing of younger Marines. We are trying to give the Marines every advantage to have access to the information needed to do their jobs to the best of their ability.”