In April 2015, U.S. House Representatives Luke Messer and Jared Polis introduced the bipartisan Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act of 2015, designed to significantly restrict how online education vendors can exploit the personal data of students who use their products. For some, the bill does not go far enough. It is evident that…

The demand for college graduates with skills in big data analysis is on the rise. Employers in all industry sectors have found significant value in analyzing both separate and combined data streams. However, news reports continue to script headlines drawing attention to data improprieties, privacy breaches and identity theft. While data privacy is…

Kindergartens through twelfth grade institutions (K-12) are susceptible to unauthorized breaches to the security of their networked systems. These systems house sensitive information for students and staff alike. K-12 organizations face a significant risk for loss of this information that can damage reputation and pose liability. Perpetrators have…

Steganography is the art and science of concealing communication. The goal of steganography is to hide the very existence of information exchange by embedding messages into unsuspicious digital media covers. Cryptography, or secret writing, is the study of the methods of encryption, decryption and their use in communications protocols.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison of two ways of developing and delivering massive open online courses (MOOCs). One was developed by The Open University in collaboration with FutureLearn; the other was developed independently by a small team at the Northampton University. Design/methodology/approach: The different…

This study was conducted to determine the level of ICT competencies among Malaysian language teachers at both primary and secondary schools. The focus of this study was on four specific domains: 1) technological concepts and operational skills; 2) pedagogical skills; 3) professional skills; and 4) social, ethics, and security skills. These skills…

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…

This guide provides practical, actionable information intended to help both technical personnel and educational leaders navigate the many decisions required to deliver broadband connectivity to students. It presents a variety of options for school and district leaders to consider when making technology infrastructure decisions, recognizing that…

Cloud computing platforms can be highly attractive to conduct course assignments and empower students with valuable and indispensable hands-on experience. In particular, the cloud can offer teaching staff and students (whether local or remote) on-demand, elastic, dedicated, isolated, (virtually) unlimited, and easily configurable virtual machines.…

This guide is designed to provide important resources and recommendations to support teacher implementation of digital learning. Digital learning is defined as "any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student's learning experience and encompasses a wide spectrum of tools and practices." This guide will…

Despite the recent advances in systems and network security, attacks on large enterprise networks consistently impose serious challenges to maintaining data privacy and software service integrity. We identify two main problems that contribute to increasing the security risk in a networked environment: (i) vulnerable servers, workstations, and…

This dissertation concerns the secure processing of distributed data by multiple terminals, using interactive public communication among themselves, in order to accomplish a given computational task. In the setting of a probabilistic multiterminal source model in which several terminals observe correlated random signals, we analyze secure…

Use of the Patch Vulnerability Management (PVM) process should be seriously considered for any networked computing system. The PVM process prevents the operating system (OS) and software applications from being attacked due to security vulnerabilities, which lead to system failures and critical data leakage. The purpose of this research is to…

This paper presents the results of a comparison study between graduate students taking a software security course at an American university and international working professionals taking a version of the same course online through a free massive open online course (MOOC) created in the Google CourseBuilder learning environment. A goal of the study…

Despite the critical societal importance of computer security, security is not well integrated into the undergraduate computing curriculum. Security classes and tracks treat security issues as separable topics as opposed to fundamental issues that pervade all aspects of software development. Recently, there has been an increasing focus on security…