SECURE-IT Cybersecurity Project

There is a growing demand for cybersecurity knowledge and skills in organizations of all types. To meet this need, this project is adapting and implementing cybersecurity curricula, strengthening the recruitment and retention of students in information technology (IT), and providing professional development in cybersecurity for educators and industry professionals. By adapting curricula developed through CyberWatch, an ATE National Center of Excellence, the project is developing an associate degree that meets the requirements for transfer to four-year institutions. To ensure transferability and relevance, the curriculum incorporates standards required for the Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education-Two Year (CAE2Y) designation. Incumbent IT workers often lack adequate training in cybersecurity. To fill this skills gap in the current workforce, the project team is collaborating with local employers to package credit-bearing curricula into a model online/blended training track culminating in a Certificate of Completion. To produce more graduates for the high-demand, high-pay career pathways that IT and cybersecurity offer, the project is working to increase graduation rates in the college's Computer Information Technology program and is working to increase the number of women students, in particular, who enroll in the program. The project team is reviewing and modifying curricula to include active learning strategies, such as the "flipped" classroom, as a means to engage students, heighten learning, and improve retention. The project is also providing faculty with training on gender-inclusive practices to help overcome stereotypes that discourage women from pursuing careers in computing. The project is collaborating with the Midwest Center for Information Technology (MCIT), an NSF ATE Regional Center of Excellence based in Omaha, NE, to provide professional development in cybersecurity to community college faculty, high school teachers, and industry representatives in a four-state region during MCIT's annual "Working Connections" conference. Collaboration with MCIT and CyberWatch provides a means of nationally disseminating the project's new curricula and other models.