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Scaling to a Distributed Implementation of the Air Force JROTC Cyber Academy (Evaluation)

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Pre-College Engineering Education Technical Session 7: Cybersecurity and Computing

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40571

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40571

Download Count

291

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Paper Authors

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Anni Reinking

biography

Monica McGill CSEdResearch.org

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Dr. Monica McGill is the Founder, President, and CEO of CSEdResearch.org, a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on improving K-12 Computer Science education for all children by enabling and disseminating exemplary, evidence-driven research.

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Abstract

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, cybersecurity jobs will grow 28% over the next few years, with 1.8 million of these jobs unfilled in 2022. These reports indicate a great need for individuals to be trained and employed in cybersecurity for the U.S.’s safety and security. Recognizing this, the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AF JROTC) and partner organizations implemented a Cyber Academy in 2020. The goals of the Cyber Academy are to engage AF JROTC cadets in learning cybersecurity skills and becoming more aware of careers in cybersecurity by connecting high school JROTC cadets with dedicated faculty, mentors, and the wider cybersecurity field and Air Force through an intense summer course. This pilot was hosted at one institution (Mississippi State University) and was designed to teach a college-level cybersecurity course to 25 AF JROTC cadets in high school.

In 2021, the Cyber Academy moved to a distributed model taught at five institutions. In total, the Academy was designed to reach 100 AF JROTC cadets, 20 cadets at each host institution receiving very similar core curriculum. In this paper, we provide a summary of our evaluation of the distributed Cyber Academy by first describing the curriculum and then highlighting outcomes from 2021. The outcome analysis is based on data we collected from surveys, focus groups, and cadet grades. We provide an overview of the evaluation conducted based on the CAPE (Capacity, Access, Participation, Experience) Framework, a novel approach for evaluating an intervention that takes into account how the capacity to offer education, who has access to it, who ultimately participates in it, and how the experience impacts learners from diverse backgrounds.

Reinking, A., & McGill, M. (2022, August), Scaling to a Distributed Implementation of the Air Force JROTC Cyber Academy (Evaluation) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40571

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