| NSF Org: |
DGE Division Of Graduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 6, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 19, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1419318 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Victor Piotrowski
vpiotrow@nsf.gov (703)292-5141 DGE Division Of Graduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $196,073.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $234,940.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2015 = $38,867.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 GRAND AVE BLDG 15 SAN LUIS OBISPO CA US 93407-9000 (805)756-2982 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1 Grand Ave San Luis Obispo CA US 93407-0830 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001516DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The project involves the design and development of a pedagogical alternate reality game (ARG) teaching Cybersecurity and Computer Science (CS) concepts to first-year, undergraduate students. The objectives of this project are to engage undergraduates with authentic problems demonstrating the relevance of Cybersecurity to the world around them; to highlight the role of computers in both solving problems and constructing problems; and to challenge students with creative puzzle-solving that exercises role-play and "adversarial thinking." Designing an ARG with Cybersecurity topics will provide research data on how essential Cybersecurity issues might be brought into introductory course materials, and be communicated to audiences who are unfamiliar with programming, networks, or operating systems. Since this audience has little prior CS knowledge, the design of course materials and tools will be appropriate for other introductory programs, such as high school clubs and extracurricular STEM programs. Students enrolled in these courses will be tracked longitudinally, providing a method to assess the long-term impact of these curricular materials. The project will be an interdisciplinary effort, engaging stakeholders and educators across campus, including the departments of Education, Kinesthesiology, Liberal Arts, and Engineering Studies. The Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program funds proposals that address Cybersecurity from a Trustworthy Computing Systems perspective; a Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences perspective; and proposals focusing entirely on Cybersecurity Education.
The project has two broad goals: to develop a set of modules teaching security concepts that are accessible to a wide audience, that foster curiosity in security topics, and that develop interest in CS and STEM disciplines; and to explore the relationship between ARGs and other types of cyber-competitions, finding evaluative strategies that enhance the state of knowledge in both domains, and to explore these connections using a case study. Understanding the relationship between pervasive games, ARGs, capture-the-flag contests and other cyber-competitions will facilitate scientific cross-pollination between those domains, helping to increase the effectiveness of those events. The target outcomes of the project are: to design and develop materials for a security-themed ARG to complement a set of learning outcomes appropriate for an introductory computer science course; to integrate the ARG with an introductory computer science course, as an evaluated case-study measuring its acceptance and impact; and to disseminate curricular materials, evaluation materials and lessons learned, and any software tools to other educators, so they may be assessed, modified and re-used.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The broad objective of this project was to design, deploy, and evaluate new ways of teaching introductory computer science and computer security concepts to first year undergraduates through the use of narrative-driven games and play. The curricular materials deviate from many of the traditional approaches employed in CS education, which can focus on overly-constrained problems that lack creativity and individual expression, and instead present core CS concepts with real-world context, social relevance, all in an expressive, team-play environment. Our materials matured the ideas around game play in classroom and puzzle-based learning to include a compelling narrative, delivered as an alternate reality game (ARG), designed to increase engagement and student performance in the subject matter.
'This project made an additional impact by bringing together a community of interest around the use of games and play for computer science and security education. The PIs organized multiple academic workshops for educators, evaluators, and game developers to discuss the issues challenging security education and outreach. These issues include pedagogical meaningfulness, re-playability, accessibility and outreach, and assessment.
All of our project's artifacts have been made freely available. These include the story elements and "digital assets" associated with our ARG (e.g. video, web sites, photographs), supporting technologies (e.g. course "scoreboards"), laboratory material (e.g. instructions and frameworks), evaluation tools (e.g. exams, surveys, rubrics), and teaching materials (e.g. syllabi, lecture notes, slides). We have also spun-off and made available many of the curricular elements into self-contained modules, usable in outreach or "camp" setting. Materials have been disseminated through the project's website as well as in publications and other academic settings (e.g. invited talks and panels).
Our project was a successful, first attempt at merging aspects of capture the flag-style challenges, puzzle-based learning, and alternate reality games (ARGs), which improved student engagement, increased awareness of computer security as a discipline and professional opportunity, and a created a pathway to a more cyber-aware workforce.
Last Modified: 04/03/2019
Modified by: Zachary N Peterson
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