CYBERSECURITY CORE CURRICILUM MAPPING PROJECT

The first project of the Curriculum Standards Panel was the Cybersecurity Core Curriculum Mapping Project. This project involved eight online working sessions with synchronous and asynchronous activities, involving over 100 faculty, industry professionals, and government representatives completing various tasks to determine the requirements for successfully completing five National CyberWatch Center courses:

1. NCC 200: Networking I: Networking Fundamentals
2. NCC 204: Linux Server I: Linux Fundamentals
3. NCC 210: Information Security Fundamentals
4. NCC 212: Scripting Fundamentals
5. NCC 214: Ethical Hacking & Systems Defense

Core Curriculum Mapping Report: Mapping of the National CyberWatch Center’s Curriculum to National Workforce Competency Requirements (.PDF)

A COMPETENCY-BASED MASTERY LEARNING (CBML) CIRRICULUM  AND CAREER PATHWAYS

The figure above was an outgrowth of two previous research projects: First, in 2016-2017, the initial Curriculum Standards Panel Cybersecurity Core Curriculum Mapping Project produced a mapping of National CyberWatch’s curriculum to various National Workforce Competency Frameworks. Second, in 2018, the original curriculum model was modified based on a study of the five-year history of the Community College Cyber Summit (3CS) to more accurately position the National CyberWatch Information Security Fundamentals course (NCC 210) as the gateway between the four Cyber Foundation Series courses (NCC 200, 204, 206 and 212) and the cybersecurity specialty pathways shown in the top of the diagram above (e.g., Operate and Maintain).

Raising the BAR of Cybersecurity Capability Maturity: Five Years of Competency-based Instructional Design at the Community College Cyber Summit (.PDF)

The results of these efforts identified curriculum pathways that must be mastered to enable higher education graduates and members of the existing IT workforce to raise their cybersecurity maturity through the centrally important NCC 210 course. Upon mastery of the fundamental capabilities taught in NCC 210, a learner is ready to begin learning cybersecurity specialties. Each specialty prepares the learner for careers in one of the seven NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework Specialty Areas.

CYBERSECURITY FOUNDATION SERIES - LEARNING MATERIALS

In 2018, the Curriculum Standards Panel, with over 140 volunteers from academia, industry, and government, determined seven threshold Learning Objectives for the National CyberWatch Information Security Fundamentals course (NCC 210), the first in the Cyber Foundation Certificate, used as the basis for creating the first set of learning materials for the instructional library. The Learning Objectives and underlying concepts/topics were aligned with the primary Functions from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, as well as the Categories and Specialty Areas identified in the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework.

The goals for this effort included four outcomes:

1. Crowdsourced Instructional Designs Aligned with the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework
2. Inductive Concept Inventory Development
3. Platform Independence, and
4. Increasing Capability Maturity

For more information, see the Cybersecurity Foundations Series Overview (.PDF).