SFS: Capacity Building: Cybersecurity Education Across Disciplines with Focus on Minorities and Women

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Hawaii Maui College (UHMC) CyberEd project will address the concern that the current training, education, and readiness in the emerging realm of cybersecurity is not being met by small businesses and in rural communities. UHMC will enhance its cybersecurity education program through new cross-disciplinary courses and course modules that will be embedded in existing courses and curriculum in a variety of disciplines. The CyberEd project will target students and faculty who live in rural areas in Maui County, Hawaii, who do not have ready access to high technology, as well as women, minorities, and college instructors who are in a position to disseminate training to a wide selection of students. The project will focus on cyber security issues that are critical for future owners or employees of small businesses, who usually rely on their own skills and capabilities to prevent and protect against cybercrime. This project will meet the needs of Maui County, in the State of Hawaii, a federally designated rural area. The learning environments that will be developed will use real-world problems as project-based scenarios and will be guided by the national articulated core knowledge and skills in information assurance and cyber defense. The curricula will be designed in a modular format to facilitate communication and partnership with other educational institutions, businesses/industries and governmental stakeholders in cyber defense. A key feature of the project will be the training of college faculty from a variety of disciplines ranging from accounting to healthcare. Summer cyber workshops will bring together faculty and students to learn about cybersecurity issues and challenges, and will prepare them to disseminate their learning and education to fellow students, peers and the surrounding community. The participants in these workshops will become mentors and coaches in their own fields of instruction and promote cybersecurity within their course modules. The project will be evaluated on an ongoing basis for rigor, relevance and effectiveness. The formative/summative assessment process will include ongoing, short, mid, and longterm evaluation exercises based on specific evaluation criteria. The criteria will cover the wide section of participants involved in this project including high school and college students, research students, high school teachers, college faculty, rural technicians and adult learners. The project evaluator will utilize site visits, as appropriate, to ensure that the assessment and evaluation process produces meaningful results.