Development and Analysis of a Spiral Theory-based Cybersecurity Curriculum: (Abstract Only)

The current emphasis on cybersecurity worldwide, demonstrates the importance of this topic. This poster describes a unique NSF funded project that aims to create cybersecurity education opportunities at Virginia Tech (VT). It is a collaborative effort among faculty and graduate students in the Engineering Education, Computer Science (CS), Electrical and Computer Engineering (includes two majors, Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Engineering (CPE)) Departments, and the Hume Center in the College of Engineering at VT. The goal is to integrate cybersecurity modules into eight required CS and CPE courses, from freshman to junior levels, utilizing Jeremy Bruner's spiral-theory-based1,2 curriculum model. A spiraling theme of "handling threats to software for securing information" is chosen that will be returned to repeatedly as learners advance in their knowledge and intellectual capacity. Cybersecurity goals of the Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Authenticity, Anonymity, Assurance (CIA/AAA) triad, as appropriate for various academic levels, are adopted to develop the cybersecurity modules. Each module engages students in an authentic activity that reinforces the cybersecurity concepts. The project includes an engineering education research component, which is focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum in enhancing students' knowledge, skills, and motivation in cybersecurity concepts. The first year of the project has been completed by introducing cybersecurity modules into four courses (CS: Introduction to Software Design, and Software Design and Data Structures, and CPE: Engineering Problem Solving with C++, and Data Structures and Algorithms) impacting ~1600 students. The details of curriculum development, implementation and, preliminary findings of the research will be presented.