Work in Progress: Comparison of ‘Boot Camp’ and Traditional Academic Course Delivery for Cybersecurity Education

Ben Bernard; Jeremy Straub

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: CPDD Session 1 - Generating Intellectual Excitement for Professional Learners
Tagged Division: Continuing Professional Development
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35623
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/35623
Download Count: 429

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Paper Authors

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Ben Bernard North Dakota State University

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Ben Bernard is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Computer Science at North Dakota State University and is the Computer Services Specialist for the Department of Architecture & Landscape Architecture at NDSU with fifteen years of service. Bernard has been professionally recognized for his contributions to NDSU's new cybersecurity educational programs and is the first to be awarded an MS in Computer Science with an Cybersecurity focus at NDSU. His research interests bring new technologies together with creative education and outreach implementations, frequently featuring digital fabrication, augmented & virtual reality, and cybersecurity education. Bernard leads a team of graduate & undergraduate design students to research and implement advanced design technologies.

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Jeremy Straub North Dakota State University

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Jeremy Straub is the Associate Director of the NDSU Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Scientific Computing, an M.S. and an M.B.A. and has published over 40 journal articles and over 120 full conference papers, in addition to making numerous other conference presentations. Straub’s research spans the gauntlet between technology, commercialization and technology policy. In particular, his research has recently focused on cybersecurity topics including intrusion detection and forensics, robotic command and control, aerospace command and 3D printing quality assurance. Straub is a member of Sigma Xi, the AAAS, the AIAA and several other technical societies, he has also served as a track or session chair for numerous conferences.

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Abstract

The need for quality cybersecurity education is growing rapidly due to a significant level of current unfilled demand, which is growing rapidly, for cybersecurity professionals. This demand was created and is driven by the ever-increasing rate of technology implementation in mission-critical roles throughout industry, governments, and society. The proliferation of technology use has caused a corresponding increase in cybercrime, which is estimated to have a global cost of $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. In addition to fighting criminals, businesses and governments need to be prepared to combat cyber activists and even government and military security professionals who may attack foreign computer systems in service of their national goals. The demand for cybersecurity professionals has far outstripped the supply and the deficiency impairs society’s ability to counter these growing threats. Currently, there are over 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions, it has been predicted that there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021.

Due, in part, to this need and for a variety of other reasons, numerous non-collegiate cybersecurity offerings have been launched. Many of these programs promise to offer the education and career prospects of a 2-year or 4-year degree in a matter of weeks or months. While the focus is somewhat different and these programs don’t offer the well-rounded background of a collegiate degree, they do raise a question of the comparative efficacy of different approaches for providing cybersecurity instruction.

This paper begins to answer the question of how educators can best meet the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals. It compares the learning outcomes of a cybersecurity course offered in the traditional three credit hour classroom lecture setting over one academic semester to an immersive 80-hour workshop environment offered as two 40-hour weeks of instruction, lab work and facilitated assignments. The paper describes the study which will include comparative assessment of students in both environments. The work will consider both the outcomes achieved and student satisfaction with the learning process. The study will include pre- and post-tests for both formats. Also, students in both environments will be surveyed before and after the cybersecurity education experience to evaluate students’ perceptions of the education environment’s impact on their performance. The results will be compared between the two groups. The initial results of this work are presented and topics for ongoing and prospective future work are discussed.

Citation
Format

Bernard, B., & Straub, J. (2020, June), Work in Progress: Comparison of ‘Boot Camp’ and Traditional Academic Course Delivery for Cybersecurity Education Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35623

TY - CPAPER
AB - The need for quality cybersecurity education is growing rapidly due to a significant level of current unfilled demand, which is growing rapidly, for cybersecurity professionals. This demand was created and is driven by the ever-increasing rate of technology implementation in mission-critical roles throughout industry, governments, and society. The proliferation of technology use has caused a corresponding increase in cybercrime, which is estimated to have a global cost of $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. In addition to fighting criminals, businesses and governments need to be prepared to combat cyber activists and even government and military security professionals who may attack foreign computer systems in service of their national goals. The demand for cybersecurity professionals has far outstripped the supply and the deficiency impairs society’s ability to counter these growing threats. Currently, there are over 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions, it has been predicted that there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021.

Due, in part, to this need and for a variety of other reasons, numerous non-collegiate cybersecurity offerings have been launched. Many of these programs promise to offer the education and career prospects of a 2-year or 4-year degree in a matter of weeks or months. While the focus is somewhat different and these programs don’t offer the well-rounded background of a collegiate degree, they do raise a question of the comparative efficacy of different approaches for providing cybersecurity instruction.

This paper begins to answer the question of how educators can best meet the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals. It compares the learning outcomes of a cybersecurity course offered in the traditional three credit hour classroom lecture setting over one academic semester to an immersive 80-hour workshop environment offered as two 40-hour weeks of instruction, lab work and facilitated assignments. The paper describes the study which will include comparative assessment of students in both environments. The work will consider both the outcomes achieved and student satisfaction with the learning process. The study will include pre- and post-tests for both formats. Also, students in both environments will be surveyed before and after the cybersecurity education experience to evaluate students’ perceptions of the education environment’s impact on their performance. The results will be compared between the two groups. The initial results of this work are presented and topics for ongoing and prospective future work are discussed.

AU - Ben Bernard
AU - Jeremy Straub
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: Comparison of ‘Boot Camp’ and Traditional Academic Course Delivery for Cybersecurity Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/35623
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35623
ER -