Pedagogical Best Practices in Higher Education National Centers of Academic Excellence / Cyber Defense Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defens

The purpose of this study was to examine pedagogical best practices for student mastery of cybersecurity competencies. Additionally, the researcher explored factors that may either promote or hinder student learning in cybersecurity education. Interviews were conducted with cybersecurity educators from colleges and universities in Alabama and Tennessee who are members of the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program in Cyber Defense (CD). Eight higher education institutions from the state of Tennessee and Alabama participated in this study who had passed the requirement of Academic Excellence / Cyber Defense Centers of Academic in becoming National CAE designated institutions for cybersecurity programs. The participants were interviewed, and the collected data from the interviews were kept confidential. The study sought to find the best pedagogies being used in cybersecurity programs in institutions designed as Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) to prepare students. The study also sought to determine specific pedagogical best practices depending upon type of competency, as well as determining the factors that exist that may either promote or hinder student learning in cybersecurity education? The outcome of this research has brought a new light in which students learn cybersecurity subjects alongside suggestions and future research for improving cybersecurity education at academic institutions. The results from this study indicate that there are four pedagogical themes: Theme A, Hands-on virtual reality online; Theme B, Hands-on with instructor; Theme C, Mixed or blended learning; and Theme D, Flipped classroom learning. All cybersecurity competencies can be achieved only through hands-on learning; findings yielded one theme from this study that will enable educators of higher education to use hands-on with virtualization led by an instructor as the best pedagogy. The final findings, determining factors that promote or hinder student learning in cybersecurity education, include a lack of adequate budgetary resources and staff to adequately address security concerns. Staffing was the second most voiced weakness. Higher education students expect all campus computing resources and environments to be reliable, fast, safe, ubiquitous, and secure; however, their expectations were not met. Cybersecurity professionals are paid a high salary, and higher education institutions expect their instructors to be paid demeaning amounts. Finally, a positive note towards promoting learning is the use of adjunct faculty who provide a significant service to the community and technical colleges in promoting cybersecurity training. Adjunct faculty bring to the classrooms an extensive cybersecurity experience.