Enhancing cryptography education via visualization tools
Xavier Simms, Hongmei Chi · 2011
Visualization has become a very popular tool in teaching Information Assurance courses. This paper presents several visualization strategies to engage students in learning cryptography concepts, algorithms, protocols and applications in a blended learning environment. Simply listening to a lecture or attending a physical computing laboratory to explore cryptograph concepts for numerous reasons, may not be ideal. Passive involvement of students in their learning process generally leads to a limited retention of knowledge. Students today have excellent visual-spatial reasoning skills and the instructional methods chosen should be visual and require active participation. We are exploring several visualization technologies in hopes of helping students to master encryption/decryption concepts quickly and effectively.