Using a virtual lab to teach an online information assurance program

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of a virtual computer lab for teaching online information assurance classes. This provides an opportunity for students to do hands-on security assignments. Different approaches to providing students with hands-on security assignments are briefly discussed and examples of several assignments are outlined.

Conceptual Model of Online Pedagogical Information Security Laboratory: Toward an Ensemble Artifact

“…For instance, the pedagogical approaches and their role in design and development of lab exercises have been mostly absent in the existing literature [13]- [19]; however, our proposed model and design principles reflect that the pedagogical alignment of lab activities is important for achieving specific goals through hands-on education via InfoSec labs. The pedagogical theories influence the design of an exercise from the start and, eventually, the concrete lab interface settings are defined based on the pedagogical theory selected during the initial phase of the exercise development.…”

“…Remote virtual computing labs have been suggested [16] [17], with a brief discussion of infrastructure and exercises that make use of the lab, yet without a detailed description of any explicit design method or any pedagogical approach adopted to design and develop a lab and relevant exercises. Similarly, virtual security laboratories [13], [14], [18], [19] have been proposed. Some of these laboratory ideas do not include any explicit descriptions of infrastructure [18] [15].…”

“…The role of hands-on exercises in information security is of a vital nature [12][4] in order to produce and enhance the security skills of information security students. In the existing literature, the design of lab exercises has been discussed briefly [16]- [19], [27]- [30]. A lab exercise is a written plan to carry out some specific tasks to achieve particular goals.…”

Designing a computer forensics concentration for cross-disciplinary undergraduate students

“…During the next year, FAMU will establish a digital forensics teaching lab that extends our NSF-funded security lab and mirror virtual labs from successful examples with respect to hardware and software [10,13]. All Arts and Science majors at Florida A&M University are required to have a minor in order to be eligible for graduation.…”

“…The objective of this course is to provide computer science and criminal justice students with a legal overview of the impact of cybercrime CIS 4xxx Computer Forensics project The course will be project oriented and focus on real-world case study that can be involved computer and network forensic analysis [13,14,15,16].…”