| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 29, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 29, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1400567 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
R. Corby Hovis
chovis@nsf.gov (703)292-4625 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $240,875.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $240,875.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 LOMB MEMORIAL DR ROCHESTER NY US 14623-5603 (585)475-7987 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
One Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester NY US 14623-5603 |
| 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): |
S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math, Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
| 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
Cybersecurity and digital forensics are critical areas of national importance, with an increasing demand for knowledgeable professionals. The demand for well-qualified workers in these areas has prompted the development of many cybersecurity and digital forensics programs and certificates by two-year and four-year colleges. Community colleges often offer an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in computer forensics or an Associate of Science (A.S.) degree for transferring to four-year colleges. However, as digital forensics is a relatively new field, only limited curricular materials are covered in these programs, and the courses have been primarily designed for upper-level undergraduate students, who are better-prepared to deal with abstract concepts and complex forensics technologies. In this pilot project, three institutions -- Rochester Institute of Technology, Corning Community College, and Onondaga Community College -- will collaborate to enhance digital forensics curricula by introducing a small set of "game-based" digital forensics modules for entry-level students. The game-based, modular approach will enable colleges to offer digital forensics training to entry-level students, therefore producing additional skilled forensics technicians and professionals to meet workforce demands. The investigators expect this project to directly impact more than 500 students from at least 20 two-year and four-year colleges, including community colleges in rural areas.
This project uses the Game-Based Learning (GBL) approach, which presents forensics concepts and practices designed as games through technology to engage students' learning. A sequence of entertaining yet educational digital forensics modules will be built into games in a real computing environment that has direct access to the latest forensics software. The level-100 module will cover principles of computer forensics investigation, including incident response and processes and procedures for collecting, preserving, analyzing, and reporting digital evidence to the courts. The level-200 game-based modules, focusing on system and network forensics, will especially help freshmen and sophomores to better understand forensics concepts and engage them to obtain hands-on experience in a user-friendly way. These modules will also lay a solid fundation for community college students to undertake advanced forensics training if they transfer to a four-year college. In contrast with the traditional teaching approach, the modular approach utilizing GBL and visualization techniques will help students to understand intangible and inaccessible abstract concepts such as deleted/hidden/encrypted/overwritten digital evidence, and to effectively convey critical aspects of computer forensics. This approach will also encourage students to explore forensics investigation technologies and procedures via hands-on techniques. Solving the puzzles and reaching milestones along the way will provide rewards and positive reinforcement when students take actions appropriate for the problem at hand. Unlike other video games, these educational forensics games will be developed to interface in a real computing environment that allows students to investigate real cases using state-of-the-art forensics software. Through this research and development effort the investigators aim to study the effectiveness of the GBL and visualization approach in engaging and improving entry-level students' learning in advanced fields such as digital forensics, which involve understanding abstract concepts and hands-on practice. In addition, the study seeks to broaden the base of knowledge regarding the conditions under which successful learning occurs.
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.
Cybersecurity and forensics are among the most critical areas of national importance, in a growing need of knowledgeable professionals. In response, many cybersecurity and forensics programs have been developed in the past ten years. While many community colleges offer computer forensics degree programs, only limited forensics curricular material is covered in these programs due to the fact that digital forensics courses have been primarily designed for upper-level undergraduate students. This multi-partner project aims to enhance digital forensics curricula, starting at the entry-level for both two-year and four-year colleges and universities, by introducing digital forensics content using a game-based learning approach. The project was led by principal investigators from the Rochester Institute of Technology, collaborating with Onondaga Community College and Corning Community College, to develop a sequence of entertaining, engaging, and educational forensic games, suitable for first year students in college. We explore game-based learning strategies to engage students learning through interactive game scenarios. Following narrative and/or storylines of the game via interactive dialogs and visualized abstract concepts, students are motivated and engaged to obtain the necessary knowledge, and to develop their problem-solving skills while playing the game.
During the grant period, one forensic game infrastructure and six course modules were designed, developed, and assessed across the three partnering institutions. The six course modules include one 100-level module: Introduction to Digital Forensics, and five 200-level modules: Windows Forensics, Windows Registry Forensics, Linux Forensics, Linux Incident Response, Network Forensics. In addition to the game infrastructure, we also developed a GUI-based game creator to help instructors/users to create their own course modules. This intuitive game creator allows instructors to modify and create new games by only focusing on discipline-specific content, so that the game infrastructure can be easily adapted and used across other disciplines. The web-based forensic game framework is hosted at https://forensic-games.csec.rit.edu/, which includes the IPAR game that runs forensic games, the GUI-based game Editor/Creator that helps instructors/users to create or edit their own course modules to play in IPAR, and the game Reader to help instructors to read students? submissions. All material developed under this grant is available at https://atecentral.net/r34094/ipar_-_game in ATE Central.
We offered two summer workshops during the first two years grant period to train college faculty to use the games and modules. Approximately 32 faculty representing 21 colleges from New York, mainly from 2?-year colleges, participated in these workshops. Assessment results demonstrate that about 200 students in both 4-year and 2-year colleges participated in the game evaluation. Additionally, dissemination occurred through two faculty workshops and various conferences. More than 60 interested faculty members from 42 different colleges and universities have requested for our game information over the past years. The forensic game has received excellent feedback from faculty and students.
This project not only achieved its goal of demonstrating the success in using game-based learning approach in digital forensics education by introducing interactive, intuitive, and engaging educational games, but also provided an infrastructure that allows others to explore game-based approach in other STEM fields. Although the game is designed for digital forensics curriculum, the XML-based game design makes this game flexible to be adapted to other fields. The intuitive game creator allows instructors to modify and create new games by only focusing on discipline-specific content, so that the game infrastructure can be easily adapted and used across other disciplines. This project led to a number of publications, presentations, showcases, and posters during the grant period. Dissemination venues include ACM SIGCSE, IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Conference on Instruction & Technology, and ATE Principal Investigators Conference.
Last Modified: 11/13/2018
Modified by: Yin Pan
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