Course Development Process: Analysis
Needs
As part of the needs analysis, a number of steps were taken even before the funding
from NSF was awarded.
The confirmation of the need for information security workers became apparent
through news reports about the vulnerability of the nation's
networks and infrastructure and the challenges in securing
them, President Bush's directive for the development of a
National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, and events such as the workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation
and the American Association of Community Colleges, The Role
of Community Colleges in Cybersecurity Education.
Research in Fall 2002 regarding information security programs in the San Francisco
Bay Area community colleges was done in conjunction with
the Bay IT Consortium. At that point, no Bay Area colleges
were offering programs, and only a few universities and East
Coast community colleges had programs in this space.
Faculty at both De Anza College and Foothill College were in the planning stages
and early development of separate courses in response to
the demand they perceived from students and industry contacts.
Review of Relevant Work
When preliminary notification of the award came from NSF to create an innovative
pedagogical approach for the network security content, the
project team researched other existing work regarding job-task
analysis and industry needs, including:
- Cyber Security Skill Standards from the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET), which
outlines critical work functions and key activities for
security technicians.
- Northern Virginia Community College certificate program in Information Security, and especially the results of the industry focus group regarding the duties,
knowledge and skills for Information Security Specialists.
The case study from Norwalk Community College regarding the creation of their Computer Security degree program was used as
a resource for a degree program at De Anza College for which
the course being developed is a capstone.
Required Knowledge & Skills in the Workplace
To validate the information we had on skills and knowledge required of network
security specialists, the team searched the web to find actual job
announcements. From the positions found, a list of all the required knowledge and skills was created. These skills were prioritized and the most important skills were
incorporated into the course.
Input from Industry Representatives
After the skills were incorporated into learning objectives and a course Task
Overview document, this document was sent out to industry representatives
for review.
Industry feedback was thoughtful and substantive. Representatives from Microsoft,
Cisco, Carnegie Mellon University and others made suggestions that
were then addressed during the design phase.
The relevance of the tasks and the approach were confirmed, and this step provided
assurance that high-priority skills were in the capstone course.
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