TY - JOUR
T1 - Teaching Empirical Social-Science Research to Cybersecurity Students
T2 - The Case of "Thinking Like a Thief"
AU - Barth, Susanne
AU - Hartel, Pieter
AU - Junger, Marianne
AU - Montoya, Lorena
N1 - Accepted author manuscript
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - We report on an educational experiment where computer science students perform empirical research into the human factor in cyber security. Most courses restrict students to work in a lab environment,but we encouraged our students to conduct a realistic experiment with real -world subjects. The students wrote a research proposal that had to be approved by the IRB. They then executed the proposal, collecting and analysing the data. Finally the students wrote and presented a paper a student conference. The main method of assessment is by peer review. After teaching the course for six years, we report on the exciting ideas our students came up wi th, and on the lessons we learned in teaching the course. The main conclusions are (a) offering complete freedom to choose research topics inspires students to design creative projects, (b) working with real subjects creates a stimulating learning experience, and (c) peer-review is a useful assessment tool .
AB - We report on an educational experiment where computer science students perform empirical research into the human factor in cyber security. Most courses restrict students to work in a lab environment,but we encouraged our students to conduct a realistic experiment with real -world subjects. The students wrote a research proposal that had to be approved by the IRB. They then executed the proposal, collecting and analysing the data. Finally the students wrote and presented a paper a student conference. The main method of assessment is by peer review. After teaching the course for six years, we report on the exciting ideas our students came up wi th, and on the lessons we learned in teaching the course. The main conclusions are (a) offering complete freedom to choose research topics inspires students to design creative projects, (b) working with real subjects creates a stimulating learning experience, and (c) peer-review is a useful assessment tool .
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065876930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/MSEC.2018.2888781
DO - 10.1109/MSEC.2018.2888781
M3 - Article
SN - 1540-7993
VL - 17
SP - 8
EP - 16
JO - IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine: building confidence in a networked world
JF - IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine: building confidence in a networked world
IS - 3
M1 - 8713278
ER -