Virtual laboratory : facilitating teaching and learning in cybersecurity for students with diverse disciplines

Abstract

Cybersecurity education is a pressing need, when computer systems and mobile devices are ubiquitous and so are the associated threats. However, in the teaching and learning process of cybersecurity, it is challenging when the students are from diverse disciplines with various academic backgrounds. In this project, a number of virtual laboratories are developed to facilitate the teaching and learning process in a cybersecurity course. The aim of the laboratories is to strengthen students' understanding of cybersecurity topics, and to provide students hands-on experience of encountering various security threats. The results of this project indicate that virtual laboratories do facilitate the teaching and learning process in cybersecurity for diverse discipline students. Also, we observed that there is an underestimation of the difficulty of studying cybersecurity by the students due to the general image of cybersecurity in public, which had a negative impact on the student's interest in studying cybersecurity.