Cyber Pro: Developing Rigorous and Enhanced Academic Modules (DREAMS)

Project Description:

This collection of course content was created by the DREAMS (Developing Rigorous and Enhanced Academic Modules) project. This project had the following three main goals:

1. Develop cybersecurity lab activities that are functional for high school schedules, and can also be used in other college classrooms.
2. Train teachers to implement the modularized activities in their classrooms.
3. Increase accessibility of cybersecurity credentials.

At the conclusion of this grant, high school instructors from multiple states had participated in several workshops (both virtually and in person). In these workshops, the instructors learned cyber security concepts and how these concepts could be integrated into a single class or be constructed to form a complete course.

Module Description

This project identified ten cyber security topics and developed curriculum for each topic. Course content of learning materials, lab, Power Point slides, assessments and virtual machines were designed and created. Per the goal of the grant, these learning materials were designed and constructed to be taught in a typical fifty-minute high school time block. These topics were further divided by level of difficulty: Level #1: the students “See” the topic (could be used as a teacher demo), Level #2: the students “Do” (Hands on lab), and Level 3: the students must “critically think” (while performing an advanced lab). The idea was to give the instructors a “complete package” of courseware.

Module topics and the labs "... are stand-alone with no pre-requisite requirements and can be completed randomly or sequentially to build knowledge and skills."

The following are the 10 topics covered in the modules:

1. User Accounts

2. Operating System Passwords

3. File System Security

4. Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware

5. Software Firewall

6. Internet and Web Security

7. Wireless Router Security

8. Operating System Hardening

9. Encryption and Decryption (Cryptography)

10. System Security Policy

Contents:

This collection includes modules that cover the ten topics that were identified. Also included are an instructor manual, software documents, lab worksheets and solutions, topics assessments, topic PowerPoints, and a virtual box install and troubleshooting guide.

The 14-page instructor guide includes information about the project and the resulting curriculum. Each module topic is listed. The focus of each level of the modules is provided. 

Three different modules are included for each topic: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Each lab includes learning objectives, requirements, learning concepts, the start-up lab procedure, and more.

Software documents include a Setup and Install Guide, an Uninstall and Removal Guide, and a virtual box troubleshooting guide. 

Included worksheets and assessments correspond to each module topic. Worksheets include short answer and assessments include multiple choice questions. Answers are provided.

The ten PowerPoints include learning objectives and discuss the what, why, and how of each topic.

Below is a list of files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

CyberSecurity Learning Series [CLS] (242 files, 90.4 MB)

• CyberSecurity Learning Series Instructor Manual (CLS Instructor Manual.pdf 560 KB)
• CLS Lab Modules (71 files, 38.4 MB)
• CLS Lab Software
  • Setup & Install Guide (Setup & Install Guide.pdf 2.4 MB)
  • Uninstall & Removal Guide (Uninstall & Removal Guide.pdf 494 KB)
  • Virtual Box Install Trouble Shooting (VirtualBoxInstallTroubleShootingDoc.pdf 196 KB)
• CLS Lab Worksheet Solutions (71 files, 9.6 MB)
• CLS Lab Worksheets (71 files, 9.6 MB)
• CLS Topic Assessment (51 files, 2 MB)
• CLS Topic PowerPoints (11 files, 22.4 MB)
• Virtual Box Install Trouble Shooting Cy(VirtualBoxInstallTroubleShootingDoc.pdf 193 KB)