The Information Assurance Auditing Project

Riverside Community College District/Moreno Valley Campus, Moreno Valley CA

Investigators

Abstract

In order to create a more highly qualified and diverse technology workforce in information assurance to better serve the security needs of business and industry, this project at Moreno Valley College (MVC) in southern California is designed to develop a new Information Systems Auditing (ISA) associate degree and certificate program. To improve training and increase the number of certified ISA technicians while advancing the role of community colleges in Career and Technical Education (CTE), the college will address emerging ISA needs of industries and organizations. The core ISA certificate program is designed to serve low-income, first generation, and traditionally underrepresented student populations and meet their educational, economic, and career needs, which will model the culture of collaboration and partnership established between the college and regional business and industry, government and workforce organizations, K-12 districts, the community, and four-year universities. Focusing on the expertise of leaders in the field and these partnerships, the project will develop networks to support current and future technical workforce needs, internships, and other aspects of implementation. It will encourage participation by low-income, underrepresented, and/or minority students including women, with a target goal to increase and improve computer information systems (CIS) education not only at the college, but nationwide. The outcome of the efforts will affect students and instructors from high schools to colleges and universities and will positively impact the growing industries relocating to the region by improving the quality, quantity, and diversity in the workforce available to them, while making small to medium businesses more secure through regular security assessments. Project findings will be widely disseminated as it is designed to build an improved model of internship/work experiences that can be replicable at community colleges and universities nationwide and can be modified in order to meet the needs of individual institutions. A rigorous evaluation process will be employed to enhance the project activities and provide opportunities for researching and determining the success of the project and deliverables. The project includes student internships and work experiences; experiential learning; the application of knowledge for students; and systems security audits for local and regional businesses and industry. Students will gain soft and technical skills necessary to become highly-skilled ISA technicians in a business environment. The project provides an opportunity for students, primarily first generation or underrepresented, to gain a rigorous education in ISA and participate in relevant information systems opportunities and work experience through internships. The project will also provide faculty members with professional development opportunities to enhance researched pedagogy and teaching strategies in technology disciplines. It will create a blueprint for project improvement that incorporates a new model of success by developing or modifying core and transferrable CIS courses. Building on the foundation of regional workforce needs, the project will improve the training and quality of ISA technicians in the service areas of the college. With student success and employment preparation at the core of the planning and development, the second step will be the development of an Associate of Science (A.S.) transfer degree program in Information Systems (IS) to follow the certificate program.