A Global Cybersecurity Embedded Course: Student Learnings and Curricular Design

This full paper research reports on the curriculum design and voluntary Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved student laboratory learning and surveys from a global cybersecurity embedded travel course. The Cybersecurity in a Global Context embedded course is designed as a global spring break graduate and undergraduate enrichment program centered in Rome, Italy. The program curriculum was designed to expose students to classroom laboratory assignments, participate in related guest lectures, university site visits, and cybersecurity-related museum activities to enrich their understanding of international cybersecurity topics of relevance. The curriculum was designed for the graduate and under-graduate students to add breadth to their growth in knowledge extended from their classroom experience. Topics covered in the course include foundational cybersecurity and digital forensic concepts, network infrastructure security, and secure software and scripting development. The goal of the week was for students to submit assignments and participate in discussions within the four domains of knowledge. In the first two labs, students explored global topics including international criminal activities, the dark web, and networking concepts such as virtual private networks. In the third lab, students worked on securing portable WiFI routers. In the last labs, the students worked on securing the software running on the WIFI portable routers. The students worked in teams to complete the labs based on the classes they were enrolled into. A graduate student was a team captain of every team that consisted of 1–2 undergraduate students. Students were also asked to keep a daily journal for cybersecurity lessons learned from site visits, guest speakers, and laboratory assignments. These journals were transformed into blogs about their experience. Students were encouraged to publish their experience blog to raise awareness of international cybersecurity concerns. We report on the laboratory lesson objectives, guest lectures, and report on our site visit curricular designs. On learning, we report on the laboratory assignments and on the IRB-approved embedded student artifacts submitted from their assignments. We lastly report on student feedback from lessons learned along with insights from both faculty and students for next iterations of this course and similar embedded courses.