Building a Virtual Constructivist Learning Environment for Learning Computing Security and Forensics

Abstract

Practical experience of security and forensic computing is of increasing relevance for student employability. Further, courses related to these topics have increased in student popularity. Learning by doing (or experiential learning) is an effective pedagogical way to help students constructively build up their knowledge related to these courses.

To improve student engagement and employability and make these courses sustainable, the paper has proposed and developed a portable unified constructivist-learning environment using virtualisation technology, and designed a wide spectrum of hands-on materials on both security and forensic computing topics to offer students a great chance to experience experiential learning. The work presented in this paper is a typical exemplar of applying constructivist learning theories into security and forensic computing education and other similar courses. It is a new way to improve and transform undergraduate STEM education.

Keywords:

• computing security and forensics
• constructivist learning
• virtualisation

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by BLOSSOM, a project funded by The Higher Education Academy (HEA). The authors acknowledge the support from the HEA and from the School of Computing, Mathematics and Digital Technology, Manchester Metropolitan University.

The authors would also like to thank anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments on the earlier version of the paper.