This phenomenological study's objective was to review the existing initiatives for cybersecurity awareness and training that are in place for the K-12 education system throughout the United States. Every facet of life is now plagued by the potential, perceived, and real threat of cyber warfare, which includes, but is not limited to, K-12 schools…

Gamification is a term used to describe the art of taking a process or a task and making it into a game. Using games as a way to make mundane tasks or necessary lessons more fun is used in many aspects of life. Parents often use games to teach children tasks, and teachers use games to enforce learning, and much more. The gamification of Security…

We analyze the thesis that a fully immersive gamified learning platform benefits students, improving their enjoyment, time management, and performance by engaging them with the subject matter. We assert that an immersive experience centered around a true game produces better results than exercises with just a few gamified elements (e.g., points,…

The cybersecurity landscape in the United States has rapidly evolved, marked by risk and novel threats (Georgescu, 2021; Siraj et al., 2021). Today, security mindsets are "widely accepted in the computer security community as … essential … for successful cybersecurity practice" (Peterson, 2021, para. 1), valuable to aspiring…

Students need academic tools and digital skills for proper social interactions in a digital society. Researchers Ribble and Park (2019) designed the S3 Framework which stresses the importance of developing safe, savvy, and social digital citizens. Using this framework, a series of interventions were developed for students and staff to increase the…

This dissertation introduces a comprehensive framework aimed at reshaping applied cybersecurity education to significantly ease the learning curve, at scale, through three synergistic innovations. These methods address the daunting educational barriers in cybersecurity, enabling learners at all levels to understand complex security concepts more…

As the digital world evolves, so does the risk of cyberattacks. Despite technology playing a vital role in nullifying these threats, the human factor is still regarded as one of the greatest weaknesses. End-user behavior is a major cause of information security breaches. This quantitative empirical study used a single-group, pre-post-test,…

Personalized learning is gaining popularity in online computer science education due to its characteristics of pacing the learning progress and adapting the instructional approach to each individual learner from a diverse background. Among various instructional methods in computer science education, hands-on labs have unique requirements of…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the influence of protection motivation theory (PMT) constructs on security behaviors of undergraduate students. More specifically, the primary focus of this study is to answer our primary research question: to what extent do the independent variables (perceived threat severity, perceived threat…

Cyber-attacks threaten the security of computer users' information, networks, machines, and privacy. Studies of computer security education, awareness, and training among ordinary computer users, college students, non-IT-oriented user groups, and non-technically trained citizens are limited. Most research has focused on computer security standards…

As young children increasingly use the Internet, the children need to learn and apply cybersecurity fundamentals to protect personal data. Teaching young students the basics of strong passwords and data protection in a K-12 classroom setting is an obvious starting point. The literature shows an absence of approved cybersecurity curriculums for use…

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have a significant educational impact on student's learning. However, researchers report time intensive interaction is needed between ITS developers and domain-experts to gather and represent domain knowledge. The challenge is augmented when the target domain is ill-defined. The primary problem resides in…

A universal problem to our society is the dramatic increase in the number of security threats, risks, and vulnerabilities to our nation's computer systems, data, and infrastructure. Our future success depends upon the problem-solving and thinking abilities of professionals entering the Information Assurance and Security (IAS) field. These…