An interactive e-Learning approach for information security related content

Abstract

This thesis presents an e-Learning concept for practical exercises (assignments) in the context of a university course about security in information systems.<br />There are two major reasons to offer part of a course on information security as an online e-Learning course:<br />* An online course provides a high number of students with interactive learning exercises, where topics can be taught by handson experience.<br />* A semi-automated grading is able to reduce the workload for the teachers.<br />To understand a matter in all it's facets, in many cases it is helpful to be confronted with a practical problem that has to be solved by using knowledge about the topic. Practical examples can draw the attention of the learner to aspects that would have gone unrecognized in an exclusively theoretical approach. More questions are raised and have to be answered to be able to complete an exercise.<br />However, practical assignments in computer laboratories require extensive tutoring and technical infrastructure. When a certain number of students in a course is reached it is no longer possible to offer practical exercises as assignments in labs at the university. Therefore, the decision was made to evaluate whether information security related content can be taught by offering online assignments. This way the technical infrastructure is provided by each student and the whole system scales with the number of attendees. On the other side the teachers work can be reduced by designing the assignments in a way that makes it possible to grade them either automatically or semi-automatically. With that it is possible to supervise more students with less tutoring staff.<br />This thesis builds the theoretical background of such a system in the context of a security course at the Vienna University of Technology.<br />The situation was such that a course with a high number of students had to be overseen by a small group of teachers and tutors.<br />To be able to offer each student a pleasing learning experience without compromising the topic itself it was necessary to design the practical part of the course to be an e-Learning course. In this work, the theoretical background of methodical and technical aspects and questions concerning the content of the assignments are discussed and developed for practical use in this e-Learning system, where the findings of this work are evaluated. Different aspects of the architectural design of e-Learning systems are presented and evaluated.<br />The assignments covering different topics in information security are shown in detail, a classification of different assignment types is presented and their implementation design is discussed.<br />

This thesis presents an e-Learning concept for practical exercises (assignments) in the context of a university course about security in information systems.<br />There are two major reasons to offer part of a course on information security as an online e-Learning course:<br />* An online course provides a high number of students with interactive learning exercises, where topics can be taught by handson experience.<br />* A semi-automated grading is able to reduce the workload for the teachers.<br />To understand a matter in all it's facets, in many cases it is helpful to be confronted with a practical problem that has to be solved by using knowledge about the topic. Practical examples can draw the attention of the learner to aspects that would have gone unrecognized in an exclusively theoretical approach. More questions are raised and have to be answered to be able to complete an exercise.<br />However, practical assignments in computer laboratories require extensive tutoring and technical infrastructure. When a certain number of students in a course is reached it is no longer possible to offer practical exercises as assignments in labs at the university. Therefore, the decision was made to evaluate whether information security related content can be taught by offering online assignments. This way the technical infrastructure is provided by each student and the whole system scales with the number of attendees. On the other side the teachers work can be reduced by designing the assignments in a way that makes it possible to grade them either automatically or semi-automatically. With that it is possible to supervise more students with less tutoring staff.<br />This thesis builds the theoretical background of such a system in the context of a security course at the Vienna University of Technology.<br />The situation was such that a course with a high number of students had to be overseen by a small group of teachers