New Educational Games Designed At UTSA Teach
Students About Cybersecurity
Two cybersecurity
educational games to teach cryptography and cybersecurity principles to middle
school students were made available for community input through the month of
July.
The UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and
Security (CIAS)
designed the games as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant to
develop effective ways that introduce students to cybersecurity principles
through game-based learning platforms. The CIAS was seeking feedback from
teachers and players while the games were available in their beta release form.
“In addition to the community’s help in identifying any potential bugs or
connectivity issues, we are eager to determine a player’s overall reaction to
the games and how well they’ve learned the concepts of transposition ciphers
and cybersecurity principles,” said Larry Sjelin, director of game development
at the CIAS.
Project
Cipher is designed to
introduce students to the concept of cryptography by showing players techniques
for encoding or decoding secret messages, called ciphers. The various levels
within the game teach students to identify what type of code is being used and
then how to decode that message through an interactive platform.
The practical applications of cryptography are far reaching. Many
organizations, both locally and abroad, use cryptography to encrypt documents,
networks, emails and more. This skill set is also employed by governments,
military and businesses.
Image credit: UTSA CIAS – Project
Cypher Game
“Players can navigate Project
Cipher through either a story mode or free play option,” added Sjelin.
“Once they’re more familiar with the cryptography concepts, they can choose
different levels of difficulty. But that’s just one game we’re beta testing
right now. Our second education tool, Pyramid
of Knowledge.”
Pyramid
of Knowledge is designed as a
testing tool to provide educators with the ability to build their own quizzes
for use in the Pyramid quiz interface. This online tool supports automated
scoring, randomized answer positioning and multiple-choice options. While it
functions as a trivia game show that instructors can customize to fit their
subject matter, Pyramid of Knowledge
is pre-loaded with STEM-focused content in areas of cybersecurity and math.
Image credit: UTSA CIAS – Pyramid of
Knowledge Game
Throughout both
games, players earn coins, or points, for successfully completing a section of
the game. Coins earned are transferred to the Cyber Threat Defender PC game, which launched on June 5.
“Our goal is to
connect individual users through multiple games – Cyber Threat Defender, Pyramid
of Knowledge and Project
Cipher – into one network,” said Sjelin. “The game server only collects
a player’s score, player status and overall points earned. This exchange of
information is designed to encourage a player’s interest in cybersecurity
fields.”
First launched in
April 2016, Cyber Threat Defender
was initially a multi-player collectible card game designed to learn essential
cybersecurity concepts. Players must protect themselves from attacks while
building robust networks in order to become a true Cyber Threat Defender! CTD was conceived as a complement to any
STEM or cybersecurity curriculum, aiming at middle and high school students to gain
insight about cybersecurity information and strategies through gameplay.
Image credit: UTSA CIAS - Cyber
Threat Defender Card Game
Since then, the Cyber Threat Defender card game has
been successfully integrated into 100+ schools and school districts with
focused STEM programs on technology. Due to the high demand, developers at CIAS
have launched an online version to give more students access to the game!
Image credit: UTSA CIAS - Cyber
Threat Defender PC Game
The CIAS vision is to
become the leader in the advancement of state and community cyber security
capabilities and collaboration. The CIAS has successfully integrated efforts
from academia, government and private industry. The result has been a dynamic
team dedicated to infrastructure assurance, research and education.