Closing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Dr. David Tobey, Director of Research and Assessments for the National CyberWatch Center and Assistant Professor of Management at Indiana University South Bend, will discuss how Competency-Based Education (CBE) can rapidly increase the number of capable applicants for cybersecurity jobs. CBE is focused on the achievement of competencies-per-hour to develop mastery of cybersecurity capabilities for all who desire to learn. Conversely, the current Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) reduces the number of qualified applicants by focusing on the achievement of credits-per-hour to minimize the investment in instructional resources required to recognize and select only the high-ability learners. Differences in instructional design and capability maturity produced by CBE vs. OBE will be discussed. Recommendations will be provided for how to implement CBE in a traditional brick-and-mortar as well as online learning models.