Melding Cybersecurity into a Mainstream Computer Science Education
Cybersecurity stands at the core of all computer science. No matter the innovation, if it cannot be secured, it will not stand for very long.
In general, the associate’s degree is meant to quickly prepare a student for the working world. More employers than ever are demanding new employees come in with a working knowledge of computer security. The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Committee for Computing Education in the Community College (CCECC) has developed the “Computer Science Curricular Guidance for Associate Degree Transfer Programs with Infused Cybersecurity,” guidelines endorsed by the Education Board of the ACM. To put it another way, the right people have collaborated to ensure that up and coming students receive an education that includes cybersecurity and is useful to employers on day one.
The degree covers a wide variety of security topics and directs students into one of three professional certifications: CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+ and ISCS2’s Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP). Students have the option to enroll in any one of the three programs depending on his/her individual needs, and the credits earned can be transferred into an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree.
The curriculum was vetted through public review and had to pass muster with more than 50 different community college and university computing and cybersecurity educators. Teams of experts came together virtually over a six-month period and physically during the ACM Special Interest Group Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) 2016 conference in Memphis, TN.
These experts found the benefits of the new program to include first the acknowledgment of the critical nature of security education; the blended disciplines that will now be taught; the guidance from a well-known professional society; and the online correlation tool that even more closely aligns the new curriculum with traditional associate degree programs.
If you want to learn more about the new A.A.S. degree and the innovative ways in which it is being melded into computer science educational programs, read page 9 of the National CyberWatch Center’s Innovations in Cybersecurity Education.
FULL SUBMISSION (pg.9 in National CyberWatch Center’s Innovation in Cybersecurity Education):
ACM COMPUTER SCIENCE TRANSFER CURRICULUM WITH INFUSED CYBERSECURITY CONCEPTS
This Innovation in Cybersecurity Education is a careful curriculum weave of computer science and cybersecurity education specically designed for associate degree transfer programs. The Education Board of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has endorsed the 2017 “Computer Science Curricular Guidance for Associate Degree Transfer Programs with Infused Cybersecurity” that was produced by the ACM Committee for Computing Education in the Community College (CCECC). An electronic version of the curricular guide will soon be published in the ACM digital library. The ACM is a global professional society with over 100,000 members worldwide (acm.org).
The development of this innovative curriculum followed an iterative process. Feedback on the initial draft from the first public review and comment period was processed to create the second and last draft. Likewise, the feedback from the last draft was processed to produce the final version of the curriculum. Over 50 community college and university computing and cybersecurity educators contributed to the creation of this forward-facing curricular guidance as one of the members of the CS-Cyber task force who met virtually in teams over the course of six months or through participating in a half-day workshop at SIGCSE 2016 in Memphis, TN, stopping by the poster session at ITiCSE 2016 in Arequipa, Peru, or attending one of the several sessions (affiliated event, poster and BoF roundtable) at SIGCSE 2017 in Seattle, WA.
In addition, two surveys provided valuable input, influencing the curricular guidelines. The first survey asked which knowledge areas and knowledge units from the ACM CS2013 baccalaureate body of knowledge were appropriate for the first two years of a computer science program. A second survey solicited input on cybersecurity content appropriate for an undergraduate computer science degree program in the first two years.
BENEFITS:
The benefits of this Innovation in Cybersecurity Education submission include:
1. Providing associate degree curricular guidance from a well-respected professional society, the ACM, that blends computer science and cybersecurity education together.
2. Building a blended Body of Knowledge based on measurable student learning outcomes and assessment metrics.
3. Acknowledging the critical importance of cybersecurity education across a well-established computing discipline.
4. Providing an online correlation tool to determine how closely an associate degree program aligns with the ACM curricular guidance.
5. Sharing course and program examples with the broader cybersecurity education and computer science communities.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Elizabeth Hawthorne ehawthorne@ccecc.acm.org
(908) 510-5148
ACM Committee for Computing Education in Community Colleges (CCECC)
TRANSFERABLE:
Yes, this innovation is transferable to other institutions.
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