SaTC: EDU: RUI: An Online Student-Centric Game-Based Learning System for Cybersecurity Education

The project from East Carolina University (ECU) titled 'An Online Student-Centric Game-Based Learning System for Cybersecurity Education' aims to respond to the critical need for highly-educated and skilled cybersecurity professionals that are able to recognize, prevent, and mitigate threats to the nation's critical cyber infrastructure. The project proposes to develop and implement a unique, student-centric, game-based, virtualized learning system that provides comprehensive cybersecurity awareness education for ECU undergraduate students, Community College students, and will provide a train-the-trainer capability for regional Community College instructors.

The learning solution will provide students and instructors with multiple real-world cybersecurity learning scenarios, where each scenario will represent a realistic cyber threat requiring students to develop appropriate mitigation strategies. The learning solution will integrate multiple virtual machines (VMs) that will incorporate not only autonomous and student-configured attack platforms, but also student-configured and defended firewalls, resources and other network components. In addition, the solution will allow cyberattack and cyber-defense interactions among students, as well as autonomous attack VMs, making the scenarios similar to real-world networks, while emphasizing student teamwork to counter these attacks. The learning solution will be designed to support both face-to-face and online delivery modalities, allowing for synchronous and asynchronous activities. Students will be able to access the learning environment at any time and from any location. This project will also support workforce development seminars for Community College students and faculty. The major processing and resources will be provided by ECU; users only need internet access, minimal computer resources, and a web browser to access any of the cybersecurity learning scenarios. This learning environment is being specifically developed for students and faculty from Community Colleges in rural and underrepresented communities throughout Eastern North Carolina.