Active Learning for Introductory Cybersecurity
Jeffrey J. Yackley · 2024
This innovative practice full paper describes the author's efforts to create an introductory course for cybersecurity using a flipped classroom model with active learning. The University of Michigan-Flint recently opened a new, four-year, undergraduate cybersecurity program. As part of this new program, the author was tasked with developing the first course of the program without requiring any pre-requisite knowledge to facilitate first- and second-year students to enter the program regardless of their academic background. Further, a requirement was added to all of the author's institution's undergraduate computing majors to require this course as part of their programs. This course is designed to introduce students to the field of cybersecurity and the foundational principles of security and networking needed for future courses. The author describes their iterative experience in designing this face-to-face course moving from more traditional lecture practices to using the flipped classroom model and active learning techniques. The use of the flipped classroom model, active learning, and collaborative learning were spurred by several motivations. The first motivation was that students have a strong preference for less lectures and more hands-on practical and collaborative experiences as indicated in the first asynchronous offering of the course before the face- to- face version was designed. The second motivation was the expressed desire to start developing students' soft skills to help them be able to pursue internships and co-operative education opportunities in alignment with the College of Innovation & Technology's new polytechnic focus. Students were surveyed to measure their thoughts on the course design and their engagement with the material of the course. The course is assessed using these surveys in addition to the instructor evaluation surveys and student assessment data from the in-person offerings of the course in Winter 2023, Fall 2023, and Winter 2024. The initial assessment data indicates greater student achievement and satisfaction with the active learning version of the course most recently offered in Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 in comparison to the more traditional approach used in Winter 2023.