Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
MS Thesis Defense in Computer Science
Identifying Significant, Difficult and Timeless
Concepts for Cybersecurity Assessment Tools:
Results and Analysis of Two Delphi Processes
Geet Parekh
11:00am Friday, 7 August 2015, ITE 228
As part of our ongoing project to create Cybersecurity Assessment Tools (CATs), we carried out two Delphi processes to help cybersecurity experts and educators build a consensus about the core concepts and skills in the field. We present and analyze the results of these processes.
The first process identified fundamental concepts for our Cybersecurity Concept Inventory to be given to students completing any first course in cybersecurity. The second process identified skills for our Cybersecurity Curriculum Assessment, which will be given to students graduating from college headed for their first job in cybersecurity. These tests will provide infrastructure for evidence-based improvement of cybersecurity education to help universities better prepare the substantial number of cybersecurity professionals needed in America.
Thirty-six experts participated in four to five rounds of data collection. By the end of the processes, experts reached a consensus, as indicated by decreasing variations in their scoring of the importance, difficulty, and timelessness of concepts and topics that they identified. Participation by these diverse cybersecurity experts should help increase adoption of the tests.
Keywords: Cybersecurity Education, Cybersecurity Assessment Tools (CATs), Delphi Method, Concept Inventory
Committee: Drs. Alan T. Sherman (chair), Linda Oliva, Dhananjay Phatak, Chintan Patel
Remote Participation: If you wish to attend the defense remotely via Skype, please email Geet (Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. ).
Note: The Department of Defense has funded continuation of this research under BAA-003-15 via a collaborative award to UMBC and The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (PIs Alan Sherman and Geoffrey Herman; CoPIs Dhananjay Phatak and Linda Oliva).