CPPJ

Abstract: Cybersecurity breaches and attacks have not only cost businesses and organizations millions of dollars but have also threatened national security and critical infrastructure. Improving cybersecurity requires a skilled workforce with relevant knowledge and skills. Academic cyber ranges offer virtualized environments that support cybersecurity educators' needs to provide students with a safe, separated, and engaging environment. More and more academic programs utilize cyber ranges due to the perceived benefit of integrating them into their cybersecurity-related programs. The purpose of this study was to understand the educators who were using the Virginia Cyber Range and how they were using it for cybersecurity education. More specifically, the study examined educator usage for alignment with a learning taxonomy to verify the usage contributed to successful and significant student learning. Results suggested that high school cybersecurity educators were the primary users. These educators had less formal cybersecurity education and experience compared to cybersecurity educators in higher education. The data also showed that cybersecurity educators primarily used cyber ranges for teaching and learning to meet learning goals and objectives.

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Recommended Citation: Beauchamp, C., Matusovich, H., (2023). Educational Cyber Ranges: A Mixed-Method Study of Significant Learning Experiences using Cyber Ranges for Cybersecurity Education. Cybersecurity Pedagogy and Practice Journal2(1) pp 4-25. http://CPPJ.org/2023-1/ ISSN : Forthcoming. A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of EDSIGCON 2022