Game based learning is a new game play mechanism that the players explore various aspects of game play in a learning context designed by the instructor or the game designer. Nevertheless, general acceptance of game based learning as a new learning paradigm was deferred by a lack of well-controlled, large sample efficacy studies. To address the increasing need of cybersecurity workforce, this paper introduces a game based learning method for high school cybersecurity education. Purdue University Northwest launched GenCyber high school summer camps to about 200 high school students in Chicago metropolitan area. The survey conducted after the summer camp indicated that the game based learning for cybersecurity education was very effective in cybersecurity awareness training. Further analysis of survey data revealed that there is a gender difference in raising students’ interests in cybersecurity and computer science education using game based learning method.
more »
« less
Development and Evaluation of Cybersecurity Education Games for High School Students
Cybersecurity workforce development is the key to protecting information and information systems, and yet more than 30% of companies are short on security expertise. To address this need, the current authors have developed four cybersecurity education games to teach social engineering, secure online behavior, cyber defense methods, and cybersecurity first principles. These games are intended to recruit the next generation cybersecurity workforce by developing an innovative cybersecurity curriculum and pedagogical methods to provide high school students with hands-on activities in a game-based learning environment. Purdue University Northwest (PNW) offered high school summer camps for 181 high school students in June of 2016 and June of 2017. Out of 181 high school participants, 107 were underrepresented minority students, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. To evaluate the effectiveness of the cybersecurity education games, post-camp surveys were conducted with 154 camp participants. The survey results indicated that the games were very effective in cybersecurity awareness training. Furthermore, the cybersecurity education games were more effective for male students than female students in raising student interest in computer science and cybersecurity.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1723666
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10105765
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International journal of engineering research & innovation
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2152-4157
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 25-35
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Prior scholarship on broadening participation in undergraduate computing education has made important contributions to supporting underrepresented students’ identity development and persistence. However, the specific experiences of low-income students are underexplored, and the critical juncture between undergraduate education and career or graduate school pathways are as well. For scholarship support programs to make a further impact on broadening participation in computing, it is critical to know low-income students’ viewpoints on the barriers, risks, and opportunities associated with different career pathways that influence their post-graduation plans. Our research seeks to better understand the future career pathway perceptions of low-income undergraduate computing students. We explore students’ perceptions of three specific pathways: pursuing a graduate degree, working for a large company, and becoming an entrepreneur. This study utilizes Bourdieu’s conception of economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital to understand low-income students’ perceptions of their future career pathways. This study is a part of a National Science Foundation-funded program that provides need-based scholarships, internship connections, research opportunities, and entrepreneurial education to low-income students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, cybersecurity, or computer engineering. The program includes three large, public universities in the Southeast United States and was launched in September 2021. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants from one of the participating universities to gather information about their perceptions of professional, graduate school, and entrepreneurial career pathways. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic coding. We found that the majority of our low-income participants plan to work for a large technology-focused company immediately after graduation. However, some participants indicated that the program’s scholarship, which covers up to two years of graduate education in a computing field, gives them the ability to consider pursuing a master’s degree between completing their bachelor’s degree and entering the workforce. Additionally, though many participants expressed that the idea of becoming an entrepreneur is appealing, the financial risks associated with entrepreneurship deter them from considering this career pathway themselves. Ultimately, our findings suggest that financial stability is a crucial consideration for low-income computing students as they contemplate their future goals. The participants’ responses demonstrate the importance of need-based financial aid and internship connections for low-income computing students. Furthermore, our findings indicate that intervention programs that aim to support low-income students’ career development should be more sensitive to the unique perspectives and financial concerns of low-income students when they promote graduate school and entrepreneurial pathways.more » « less
-
Prior scholarship on broadening participation in undergraduate computing education has made important contributions to supporting underrepresented students’ identity development and persistence. However, the specific experiences of low-income students are underexplored, and the critical juncture between undergraduate education and career or graduate school pathways are as well. For scholarship support programs to make a further impact on broadening participation in computing, it is critical to know low-income students’ viewpoints on the barriers, risks, and opportunities associated with different career pathways that influence their post-graduation plans. Our research seeks to better understand the future career pathway perceptions of low-income undergraduate computing students. We explore students’ perceptions of three specific pathways: pursuing a graduate degree, working for a large company, and becoming an entrepreneur. This study utilizes Bourdieu’s conception of economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital to understand low-income students’ perceptions of their future career pathways. This study is a part of a National Science Foundation-funded program that provides need-based scholarships, internship connections, research opportunities, and entrepreneurial education to low-income students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, cybersecurity, or computer engineering. The program includes three large, public universities in the Southeast United States and was launched in September 2021. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants from one of the participating universities to gather information about their perceptions of professional, graduate school, and entrepreneurial career pathways. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic coding. We found that the majority of our low-income participants plan to work for a large technology-focused company immediately after graduation. However, some participants indicated that the program’s scholarship, which covers up to two years of graduate education in a computing field, gives them the ability to consider pursuing a master’s degree between completing their bachelor’s degree and entering the workforce. Additionally, though many participants expressed that the idea of becoming an entrepreneur is appealing, the financial risks associated with entrepreneurship deter them from considering this career pathway themselves. Ultimately, our findings suggest that financial stability is a crucial consideration for low-income computing students as they contemplate their future goals. The participants’ responses demonstrate the importance of need-based financial aid and internship connections for low-income computing students. Furthermore, our findings indicate that intervention programs that aim to support low-income students’ career development should be more sensitive to the unique perspectives and financial concerns of low-income students when they promote graduate school and entrepreneurial pathways.more » « less
-
Prior scholarship on broadening participation in undergraduate computing education has made important contributions to supporting underrepresented students’ identity development and persistence. However, the specific experiences of low-income students are underexplored, and the critical juncture between undergraduate education and career or graduate school pathways are as well. For scholarship support programs to make a further impact on broadening participation in computing, it is critical to know low-income students’ viewpoints on the barriers, risks, and opportunities associated with different career pathways that influence their post-graduation plans. Our research seeks to better understand the future career pathway perceptions of low-income undergraduate computing students. We explore students’ perceptions of three specific pathways: pursuing a graduate degree, working for a large company, and becoming an entrepreneur. This study utilizes Bourdieu’s conception of economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital to understand low-income students’ perceptions of their future career pathways. This study is a part of a National Science Foundation-funded program that provides need-based scholarships, internship connections, research opportunities, and entrepreneurial education to low-income students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, cybersecurity, or computer engineering. The program includes three large, public universities in the Southeast United States and was launched in September 2021. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants from one of the participating universities to gather information about their perceptions of professional, graduate school, and entrepreneurial career pathways. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic coding. We found that the majority of our low-income participants plan to work for a large technology-focused company immediately after graduation. However, some participants indicated that the program’s scholarship, which covers up to two years of graduate education in a computing field, gives them the ability to consider pursuing a master’s degree between completing their bachelor’s degree and entering the workforce. Additionally, though many participants expressed that the idea of becoming an entrepreneur is appealing, the financial risks associated with entrepreneurship deter them from considering this career pathway themselves. Ultimately, our findings suggest that financial stability is a crucial consideration for low-income computing students as they contemplate their future goals. The participants’ responses demonstrate the importance of need-based financial aid and internship connections for low-income computing students. Furthermore, our findings indicate that intervention programs that aim to support low-income students’ career development should be more sensitive to the unique perspectives and financial concerns of low-income students when they promote graduate school and entrepreneurial pathways.more » « less
-
The ongoing workforce shortage of skilled and diverse cybersecurity professionals coupled with the continued upward trend of cybercrime has led to an increased number of funding opportunities from the federal government to support projects focused on technical skills development. Significant emphasis is placed on academic transfer pathways and education-to-career pathways for students from K-12 to community college and beyond. Utilizing funding from multiple sources, faculty have intertwined grant project activities to increase awareness of cybersecurity careers and academic pathways, emphasizing digital forensics and incident response. The two grant projects, Cyber Up! and GenCyber Girls, aimed to develop college-level curriculum and cybersecurity workshops for female high school students. Project activities were synthesized to create a summer camp for high school students based on the curriculum developed for the college programs in digital forensics and incident response. The synergy between the projects has shown an increase in female participation in the digital forensics course and helped build interest in cybersecurity careers among K-12 students.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
