2021 Innovations in Cybersecurity Education Publication Released
With the forced transition to online learning across the education spectrum as a result of COVID-19, the National CyberWatch Center decided to focus on the following theme for this year’s program: How can we best contribute to the needs and transformations that might occur for remote/online instruction in the post-COVID-19 world? Given the theme's narrow focus, we treated this publication as a Special Issue, which combines the top two submissions (as ranked by a panel of judges) with the results of our National Cybersecurity Student Association COVID-19 Perceptions Survey. Download the publication HERE.
Competency-based Cybersecurity Curriculum

Competency-based objectives, principles, and techniques target increased cybersecurity capability maturity of the entrant and incumbent IT and Cybersecurity workforce. For a short primer on what it is, how it's different from traditional Outcomes-based educational approaches, and a sample of model curriculum, see below.

View additional Competency-based Cybersecurity Curriculum information HERE.
National CyberWatch Federal Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Resource Guide, April 2021
This NSF-funded research project explored the viability of cybersecurity apprenticeships for federal agency pipeline support. Aided by close ties to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Working Group on Apprenticeships, the project developed a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the apprenticeship model, and identified key ways to improve the adoption of apprenticeships.

View the resource guide HERE.
Welcome National CyberWatch Center's Newest Member


Not a National CyberWatch member?
It's free for academic institutions. Benefits include access to exclusive publications, grant opportunities, curricular resources, and more.

Learn more HERE.
Call for Abstracts on Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce
Are you interested in serving the cybersecurity profession? Practitioners, scholars and educators... Do you have experiences, data, cases, or instructional designs that suggest how our nation can succeed in diversifying the cybersecurity workforce? Submit a paper proposal or draft abstract to the Cybersecurity Skills Journal: Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce. This publication will report systematic and rigorous investigations of the contributing causes, mediating or moderating influences, and solutions for diversifying the cybersecurity workforce.
Learn more HERE.
Diversifying Cybersecurity Workforce Group on LinkedIn

The Cybersecurity Skills Journal invites you to join the conversation with our national network of employers, educators, practitioners, policy developers, and researchers who seek to broaden participation in the cybersecurity workforce.

Join the group HERE.
Rider University Well Represented at Women in CyberSecurity Conference
Rider University was well represented in Denver, Colorado a few weeks ago at the 2021 Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Conference. In addition to being an academic sponsor at the conference, Rider was proud to send graduate student Ana Kolovani, juniors Lilli Kolovani and Marissa Neef, and the online master’s in cybersecurity program director Dr. Elizabeth Hawthorne. While Ana Kolovani was one of only 22 students to present her individual research at the conference, she was also awarded a scholarship to attend the event.
Continue reading HERE.
NICE K12 Conference Stipend Opportunity For Educators
Calling all teachers interested in cybersecurity: The 2021 VIRTUAL NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference is excited to provide a limited number of conference registration stipends to eligible educators. Educators will be selected from completed applications based on criteria for a no-cost conference registration fee ($125 value). We are particularly interested in helping educators who have no financial support for conference attendance. Applicants must be currently teaching full-time in a secondary public, private, or charter school.
Educators should have a passion for introducing cybersecurity topics into their classroom or teaching cybersecurity courses. Stipend recipients may attend the conference either on the conference dates or view the recording on their own schedule.

Application Deadline: Oct. 25,2021.
Notification Status: Winners will be notified via email on Oct. 26, 2021.
Conference dates: Dec. 6-7, 2021 with recordings available from 2 weeks post-event until July 2022.

Apply HERE.
The Importance of Community and Connectedness in Cybersecurity Webcast
Join Mary Beth Klinger and her colleagues from the College of Southern Maryland on Oct. 21st from 2-3 pm EDT as they discuss their Best Submission: Runner Up selection in this year's Innovations in Cybersecurity Education program, "The Importance of Community and Connectedness in Cybersecurity." The project is designed to coalesce government, industry, and academia into a sustainable regional effort to address and strengthen cybersecurity workforce needs throughout Southern Maryland. The focus of this National Science Foundation (NSF)- supported project is to recruit, retain, and graduate students who are presently underrepresented within the cybersecurity profession and to do so in a climate of connectedness and inclusivity.
Register for the webcast HERE.
Creation of a Cybersecurity Ambassador Program and Using it to Promote Cybersecurity Skills During the Pandemic Webcast
Join Lori Sussman from the University of Southern Maine on Oct. 28th from 2-3 pm EDT as she discusses her Best Submission selection from the 2021 Innovations in Cybersecurity Education program, "Creation of a Cybersecurity Ambassador Program and Using it to Promote Cybersecurity Skills During the Pandemic." The Cybersecurity Ambassador Program (CAP) provides graduate and undergraduate students opportunities to use the cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired at the university to raise awareness in the community.
Register for the webcast HERE.
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