Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society: Developing an Interdisciplinary, Open, General Education Cybersecurity Course

This paper describes an interdisciplinary effort involving faculty from five different disciplines who came together to develop an interdisciplinary, open, general education cybersecurity course. The course, Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society, brings together ideas from interdisciplinary studies, information technology, engineering, business, computer science, criminal justice, and philosophy to provide students an interdisciplinary introduction to cybersecurity. We provide an overview of the rationale for the course, the process the authors went through developing the course, a summary of the course modules, details about the open education resources used as readings, and the types of assignments included in the class. We conclude by offering recommendations for others developing similar courses

A Guide for Homeland Security Instructors Preparing Physical Critical Infrastructure Protection Courses

Over 350 academic programs in the United States currently offer instruction in the field of homeland defense and security. In spite of this growth at the program level over the past ten years, there still exists a shortage of instructors and coursework in critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Traditional instructor preparation (which is accomplished through the attainment of an advanced degree coupled with research and professional experience) does not currently produce enough instructors qualified in CIP because of the extremely limited number of CIP-related educational opportunities. Therefore, an alternate venue for instructor preparation must be provided. This article addresses that need by providing a guide for educators who desire to engage in a deliberate self-study program to develop sufficient expertise to teach a first course in physical CIP at the undergraduate or master’s degree level. This information is also useful for professionals who have had to assume CIP-related duties and functions without the benefit of supporting coursework. This article introduces a five-part framework for understanding CIP — policy, networks, level of hazard, level of protection, and system design — and provides resources for understanding each part of the framework. Each element of the framework is introduced and briefly explained and then resources are presented which will allow the reader to explore this particular topic in detail. Where possible, resources are presented as Web links to allow the reader to directly access the learning resource, free of charge. The article concludes with guidance for adapting the five-part framework and the materials presented in designing a CIP course tailored to the needs of a specific instructor and institution

A Guide for Homeland Security Instructors Preparing Physical Critical Infrastructure Protection Courses

Over 350 academic programs in the United States currently offer instruction in the field of homeland defense and security. In spite of this growth at the program level over the past ten years, there still exists a shortage of instructors and coursework in critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Traditional instructor preparation (which is accomplished through the attainment of an advanced degree coupled with research and professional experience) does not currently produce enough instructors qualified in CIP because of the extremely limited number of CIP-related educational opportunities. Therefore, an alternate venue for instructor preparation must be provided. This article addresses that need by providing a guide for educators who desire to engage in a deliberate self-study program to develop sufficient expertise to teach a first course in physical CIP at the undergraduate or master’s degree level. This information is also useful for professionals who have had to assume CIP-related duties and functions without the benefit of supporting coursework. This article introduces a five-part framework for understanding CIP — policy, networks, level of hazard, level of protection, and system design — and provides resources for understanding each part of the framework. Each element of the framework is introduced and briefly explained and then resources are presented which will allow the reader to explore this particular topic in detail. Where possible, resources are presented as Web links to allow the reader to directly access the learning resource, free of charge. The article concludes with guidance for adapting the five-part framework and the materials presented in designing a CIP course tailored to the needs of a specific instructor and institution

Faculty Perceptions of Open Educational Resources in Cyber Curriculum: A Pilot Study

The cyber landscape is growing and evolving at a fast pace. Public and private industries need qualified applicants to protect and defend information systems that drive the digital economy. Currently, there are not enough candidates in the pipeline to fill this need in the workforce. The digital economy is still growing, thus presenting an even greater need for skilled workers in the future. The lack of a strong workforce in cybersecurity presents many challenges to safeguarding U.S. national security and citizens across the world. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. OERs weaken barriers to learning by reducing costs, increasing access, and allowing adaptability of educational materials to meet the needs of an instructor in their field. In this study, the research aims to study cyber faculty members from higher educational institutions in the United States to determine their perceptions of using OER for cyberlearning. A survey instrument from the Babson Survey Research Group was adopted and adapted by the researcher for use in statistical analysis. Individuals from cyber professional organizations, an academic conference, and professional development opportunities in the Summer of 2019 completed the survey to help build the sample for data analysis. The research questions in the study aim to look for statistically significant differences in perceptions of cyber faculty by looking at their years of experience and the number of specialty roles faculty fill in their cyber endeavors. Further understanding of the perceptions of OER by cyber faculty will help understand the roles these educational tools play in tackling the challenges that exist in the cyber landscape

Teaching Information Assurance Online

Cyber security threats, systems vulnerabilities, privacy concerns, and other security developments are progressing and proliferating rapidly.   This article describes experience accumulated in teaching an online Information Assurance course at a 4-year college for graduate and undergraduate students. The course content is based on the security curriculum structured by ten security domains of knowledge, as defined by the (ISC)² for professional certification programs CISSP of (ISC)². Only eight out of ten domains are included in the 10-week IA-Study course. The courses uses several basic e-learning activities - online studies supported with Via Voice-narrated slides presentation, video presentation, online reference book and supplemental readings; collaborative and individual coursework supported by Online WorkBook (WB) in Google Docs, assessment quizzes administered online via Blackboard/WebCT, and team/class discussions and networking supported with a dedicated Google Blog.   WB facilitates collaborative students’ work using Wiki technology; it provides both work instructions and the place to submit the students work. Using a log in the Google Docs, the instructor can see individual contributions of team members to a collaborative project.  In addition, each team is required to submit members’ peer evaluations.   WikiDigest project – a value-added work-in-progress - opens opportunities for the instructor and the students to work together on collecting Tips and Recommendations for an Information Security Awareness knowledge base that can be used on campus by students and faculty.   In conclusion, the article reviews students’ perceptions of online learning such as acceptance of online learning in general, time needed and actually spent to study the course, and effectiveness of team collaboration

Effects of YouTube Video as Pre-Lecture Preparation

Classroom lectures convey course concepts more effectively when students have prepared in advance. Traditionally, students prepare for lectures by reading the course textbook. Textbooks are the default study material for most educational courses; however, some technical subjects are better conveyed in video format. Therefore, in this study, we encouraged students to supplement their learning resources with web-based video tutorials that provide detailed demonstrations with the respect to technical network configuration and management. YouTube is a video sharing website that can provide free educational tutorials and instructions on technical subject matter, where students can observe practical human-machine interaction to prepare for lectures and increase overall course performance on exams, assignments, and laboratory projects. Our goal was to compare the overall performance as well as the level of active class participation between two groups of the same computer networking course. We found that the group that used YouTube videos for pre-lecture preparation scored approximately 3% higher on exams but 5% lower on homework assignments than the control group (textbook only). There was no statistical significance between the two groups with respect to overall course grades. Study habits and degree of class participation of each student correlated more strongly with overall course performance than whether the student viewed the videos

Crime Investigation: A Course in Computer Forensics

The growing amount of crime, such as corporate frauds and virus attacks, in the last two decades highlights not only the importance of computer forensics in crime investigations but also the lack of forensic specialists in this area. An urgent need exists for universities to provide courses on computer forensics to ease the shortage of forensic specialists. This paper proposes a six-dimensional knowledge model for computer forensic courses. The six dimensions include categories of crime, computer technology, security, legislation, investigation process, and forensic tools. The paper describes in detail how the model was implemented in a postgraduate introductory computer forensic course. A brief summary of the lessons learned by the author in the course development and delivery is also presented

Design and Assessment for Hybrid Courses: Insights and Overviews

Technology is influencing education, providing new delivery and assessment models. A combination between online and traditional course, the hybrid (blended) course, may present a solution with many benefits as it provides a gradual transition towards technology enabled education. This research work provides a set of definitions for several course delivery approaches, and evaluates five years of data from a course that has been converted from traditional face-to-face delivery, to hybrid delivery. The collected experimental data proves that the revised course, in the hybrid delivery mode, is at least as good, if not better, than it previously was and it provides some benefits in terms of student retention