Expanding Access to Cybersecurity Career Pathways for Rural Community College Students

保持计算机和信息系统的安全是一项重大挑战。企业、工业和政府需要准备充分的技术人员，他们可以预防、检测和调查网络安全漏洞。 网络威胁的增长需要更多的具有必要的网络安全知识和技能的工作人员。该项目旨在通过促进学生沿着网络安全职业道路从学分证书到学士学位的运动来帮助解决这一需求。这项工作将涉及三大任务。 首先，项目团队将与行业专业人士合作，确定网络安全劳动力需求。 网络安全专业的学生将有机会与行业专业人士互动，学习现实工作环境中所需的内容。其次，该项目将使用虚拟的、基于云的教室和实验室环境，以及最先进的视频会议技术，为位于贝儿格雷德和洛沙哈奇格罗夫斯的学院农村校区的学生提供课程和实验室体验。这一办法将使学生不必长途跋涉去上课，并将缓解在偏远地点寻找合格教师上物理课的问题。第三，项目活动将旨在为所有学生服务，针对农村学生、妇女和来自网络安全代表性不足群体的学生。该项目将通过测试以下假设来产生关于网络安全教育的新知识：创建一个包容性的网络安全社区，包括学生学习社区和网络安全专业人士作为导师，将促进学生沿着网络安全职业道路的进步。项目活动包括：（1）创建一个学习社区，以促进学生参与;（2）开展专门的外联活动，旨在招募农村学生、妇女和其他人口从事网络安全工作;（3）通过为农村地区学生提供教育机会，改善网络安全学术教学和网络安全职业途径。该项目的一个目标是使至少一半的参与学生每年完成至少四门课程，以获得网络支持技术员学院学分证书或网络安全学院学分证书。该项目有可能增加对网络安全职业感兴趣的学生的数量和多样性，他们追求实现这一目标的途径，并进入佛罗里达的技术人员级别的网络安全劳动力。 该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Keeping computers and information systems secure is a major challenge. Business, industry, and government need well-prepared technicians who can prevent, detect, and investigate cybersecurity breaches. The growth of cyber-threats has created a need for many additional workers who have the necessary cybersecurity knowledge and skills. This project aims to help address this need by promoting students' movement along a cybersecurity career pathway from credit-bearing certificates to baccalaureate degrees. The work will involve three major tasks. First, the project team will collaborate with industry professionals to define cybersecurity workforce needs. Cybersecurity students will have opportunities to interact with industry professionals to learn what is required in real-world work environments. Second, the project will use virtual, cloud-based classroom and lab environments, with state-of-the-art videoconferencing technology, to deliver courses and laboratory experiences to students at the college's rural campuses in Belle Glade and Loxahatchee Groves. This approach will relieve students of having to travel long distances to attend classes and will mitigate the problem of finding qualified instructors for physical classes at the remote locations. Third, project activities will be designed to serve all students, targeting rural students, women, and students from groups that are underrepresented in cybersecurity. These populations offer talent that must be tapped to meet the region's and the nation's needs for maintaining a cybersecure infrastructure.The project will generate new knowledge about cybersecurity education by testing the following hypothesis: Creating an inclusive cybersecurity community that includes student learning communities and cybersecurity professionals as mentors will enhance progress of students along a cybersecurity career pathway. Project activities include (1) creating a learning community to promote student engagement, (2) conducting specialized outreach activities designed to recruit rural students, women, and other populations into cybersecurity, and (3) improving academic instruction in cybersecurity and access to cybersecurity career pathways by delivering educational opportunities for students in rural areas. An objective of the project is to enable at least half of participating students annually to complete at least four courses toward a Network Support Technician College Credit Certificate or a Network Security College Credit Certificate. The project has the potential to increase the number and diversity of students who are interested in cybersecurity careers, who pursue a pathway toward that goal, and who enter the technician-level cybersecurity workforce in Florida. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program, which focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.