CyberTraining: Implementation: Small: Using Problem-Based Learning for Vocational Training in Cyberinfrastructure Security at Community Colleges

网络安全领域的专业人员需求量很大。许多部门，包括研究、军事、民事执法、企业和私营部门社区，都受益于更大的、高技能的网络安全劳动力，特别是考虑到网络攻击的数量和复杂性不断增加。学术界面临的挑战包括培养多样化和高素质的专业人员，不幸的是，对网络安全专业人员的需求远远超过了学生的供应。社区学院在满足对网络安全专业人才的需求方面可以发挥关键作用。该项目使用基于问题的学习，这是一种创新的网络安全教学方法，将社区大学的学生带入回报丰厚的网络安全领域。通过该项目开发的教育方法和产品将广泛适用于社区大学以外的领域，并将有助于建立一支训练有素、更加多样化的网络安全和研究队伍。最终，该项目将通过保护国家的网络基础设施，为社会的健康、安全和经济福祉做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是为社区大学生提供网络基础设施安全职业培训，解决网络安全技术人员短缺的问题。社区大学拥有大量低收入、多样化的第一代大学生，他们有潜力培养一批新的网络安全专业人才。然而，这些大学在教授网络基础设施的高级网络安全技能方面面临着巨大的挑战。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将开发关于网络基础设施安全的职业培训模块。每个模块将由多个微型模块组成，以网络安全领域入门级工作所需的技能为目标。具体地说，该方法涉及三项主要任务。第一项任务涉及创建关于网络基础设施的几个攻防主题的培训模块，包括网络渗透测试和数字取证。这些模块的内容支持以问题为基础的学习，具有很强的动手能力。第二项任务涉及在NSFCloud上开发用于网络安全教育的网络范围基础设施(CRICE)，以支持基于问题的学习。NSFCloud是一项由NSF资助的公共云服务，可用于研究和培训。这将帮助社区大学有效地利用培训模块，而不需要自己昂贵的计算基础设施。第三项任务是将这些模块整合到两所社区学院的课程中，并从成本、易用性、学生学习收益和对学生体验的态度调查等方面评估基于问题的学习和CRICE的有效性。该项目的研究贡献在于探索以问题为基础的学习在美国社区学院背景下用于网络安全职业培训的有效性。该项目将表明，以问题为基础的学习在提供对网络安全主题的概念和实践理解方面是有效的。该项目由计算机和信息科学与工程局高级数字基础设施办公室资助。NSF本科教育部门的高级技术教育(ATE)计划为该项目提供共同资助，以表彰其对社区大学教育的贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Professionals in the cybersecurity field are in high demand. Many sectors, including the research, military, civil law enforcement, corporate, and private sector communities, all benefit from a larger, highly skilled cybersecurity workforce, particularly considering the increasing number and sophistication of cyber attacks. Challenges for academia include producing diverse and high quality professionals, and unfortunately, the demand for cybersecurity professionals far exceeds the supply of students. Community colleges can play a crucial role in meeting the demand for cybersecurity professionals. This project uses problem based learning, an innovative approach to teaching cybersecurity, to bring community college students into the high rewarding cybersecurity field. The educational methods and products developed through the project will be broadly applicable, beyond community colleges, and will contribute to a better trained and more diverse cybersecurity and research workforce. Ultimately, the project will contribute to the health, safety, and economic well being of society by protecting the nation's cyberinfrastructure.The overall goal of the project is to provide vocational training in cyberinfrastructure security to community college students, to address the shortage of technical staff in cybersecurity. Community colleges have a significant student population of low income, diverse, first generation college students that have the potential for enabling a new stream of cybersecurity professionals. These colleges, however, face significant challenges to teaching advanced cybersecurity skills for cyberinfrastructure. To address these challenges, the project will develop vocational training modules on cyberinfrastructure security. Each module will consist of multiple micro-modules and target the skill sets required for entry level jobs in the cybersecurity field. Specifically, the approach involves three major tasks. The first task involves creating training modules on several offensive/defensive topics on cyberinfrastructure, including network penetration testing and digital forensics. The contents of the modules support problem based learning with a strong hands on components. The second task involves developing CRICE (Cyber Range Infrastructure for Cybersecurity Education) on NSFCloud to support problem based learning. NSFCloud is an NSF funded public cloud service available for research and training purposes. This will help community colleges to utilize the training modules effectively without requiring their own expensive computing infrastructure. The third task involves integrating the modules into the curriculum of two community colleges and evaluating the effectiveness of the problem based learning and CRICE in terms of cost, ease of adoption, student learning gain, and attitudinal survey on the students' experience. The project research contribution lies in exploring the effectiveness of problem based learning for vocational training in cybersecurity in the context of community colleges in the United States. The project will show that problem based learning is effective in providing both conceptual and practical understanding of cybersecurity topics. This project is funded by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program in NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education is providing co-funding for this project in recognition of its contribution to education in community colleges.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.