Integrated Outreach: Increasing Engagement in Computer Science and Cybersecurity

Abstract

Research on innovative, integrated outreach programs guided three separate week-long outreach camps held across two summers (2018 and 2019). These camps introduced computer science through real-world applications and hands-on activities, each dealing with cybersecurity principles. The camps utilized low-cost hardware and free software to provide a total of 84 students (aged 10 to 18 years) a unique learning experience. Based on feedback from the 2018 camp, a new pre/post survey was developed to assess changes in participant knowledge and interest. Student participants in the 2019 iteration showed drastic changes in their cybersecurity content recall (33% pre vs. 96% post), cybersecurity concept identification within real-world scenarios, and exhibited an increased ability to recognize potential cybersecurity threats in their every-day lives (22% pre vs. 69% post). Finally, students’ self-reported interest-level before and after the camp show a positive increase across all student participants, with the number of students who where highly interested in cybersecurity more than doubling from 31% pre-camp to 65% post-camp. Implications for educators are large as these activities and experiences can be interwoven into traditional schooling as well as less formal camps as pure computer science or through integrated STEM.

Leveraging Local Knowledge Exploring How to Support Regional, Rural, and Remote Students' Career Development

“…There is a growing recognition that university outreach programs that only engage students could be inadequate, and a broader approach which includes industry partners would better provide students with relevant authentic learning experiences. Involvement of industry partners could create opportunities for disseminating 'real-time' relevance to prospective employees (Wolf et al, 2020). Teachers who have limited understandings of certain occupations may struggle to foster students' expectations; therefore, the engagement of industry partners could address these gaps in teacher knowledge (Jeffers et al, 2004;Woodroffe et al, 2017).…”

“…Collaboration among schools, universities, industry, and business can create a network for exchanging knowledge and harnessing expertise for the benefit of both educational and industry partners (Briscoe et al, 2016). Such mutually beneficial arrangements have become increasingly attractive in a rapidly changing environment to contribute to individual students' aspirations as well as wider community development and prosperity (Temple et al, 2001;Wolf et al, 2020).…”

Computer Science beyond Coding: Partnering to Create Teacher Cybersecurity Microcredentials

“…With this in mind, one challenge is finding out how precollegiate teachers perceive a cybersecurity microcredential PD, how it impacts their self-efficacy, and how the most effective microcredential can be coconstructed. The concept of an effective microcredential is important because educational researchers recognize that learning the principles of computer science (CS), computational thinking, and cybersecurity promote thinking creatively [9][10][11][12], and this can benefit disciplinary integration within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) [13,14].…”

Formación en ciberseguridad y educación. Variables de sensibilidad y cambio en la formación del profesorado.

“…En la actualidad, sin embargo, los planes de estudio formales en la formación de profesores, independientemente de la etapa, no cuentan con formación específica relativa a la relación entre ciberseguridad y educación. Estudios previos han puesto de manifiesto la transformación en la percepción de los riesgos cuando se establece un contexto de reflexión alrededor de los usos tecnológicos (Wolf et al, 2020), incluso, a pesar de la disposición de una cierta conciencia del riesgo (Zwilling et al, 2022;Amankwa, 2021).…”