Full Curricula & Videos

Obtaining Full Access to Curricula

To access the full college and high school curricula for Computer Security Literacy, please go to the Teacher/Educator Materials page and then log in. If you have not yet requested access, fill out the information below the login to request access. After requesting access and upon being approved, you will receive an email from WordPress with your username and password. We ask you to request access so we can maintain the integrity of the high school curriculum materials – we only want authorized users to have access to assessments and answer keys.

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College Level Curriculum Materials

At Iowa State University we developed a course entitled “Introduction to Computer Security Literacy.”  The specific purpose of this 8-week, 16-lecture course is to provide both students from technical and non-technical majors with the opportunity to formally learn about the many components of practical computer security knowledge. The prime goal of practical computer security literacy is to provide students with security context for many of the activities they encounter throughout their everyday use of computers and the Internet.

ISU Course Catalog Description

CprE 131 – Introduction to Computer Security Literacy. 1 credit. Basic concepts of practical computer and Internet security: passwords, email and attachments, social networking, web browsers, e-commerce, phishing, wireless networks, and cyber ethics. This class is intended for students with little or no background in information technology. Basic knowledge of word processing required. Satisfactory-fail only.

Class Format

Iowa State uses the video materials in a “flipped” course environment.  The students watch the assigned instructional videos, read the assigned chapters in the required book “Computer Security Literacy: Staying Safe in a Digital Word”, complete an online quiz prior to the class, and then come to lecture where the instructor (a faculty member in the Computer Engineering department) conducts demonstrations or provides real world examples of the security literacy concepts covered in the weekly video assignments.

The hour of class time is discussion based and focuses on the topic from the videos.  The class starts with an attendance quiz that is designed to get discussion started for the day. Students work on the attendance quiz in small groups first and then it is discussed as a class. The remainder of the class time is a facilitated discussion.

At the end of the week, students must write a one to two paragraph essay answering an open-ended question that makes them apply the concepts covered that week.

Below are samples of the syllabus and weekly outlines used in the 8 week course. These files may be modified for your use in your course. There are links to the instructional videos used in the course. These can also be downloaded as MP4 and WMV formats from the Teacher / Educator Materials page. Attendance quizzes, summative assessment quizzes, and writing assignments are available as well.

Sample syllabus (word format):  Syllabus Template

Weekly outlines (zip file containing word docs):  Class Outlines

Video modules: YouTube Link & Vimeo Link

Other Materials: Attendance quizzes, downloadable instructional videos, summative assessment quizzes, and writing assignments to access these materials, please click this link and then log in.

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High School Level Curriculum Materials

high-school-flyer (PDF)

Students will relate the information they learn to real world situations through class-based discussions, case studies, and classroom assignments.

The goals of this course are that students will:

• define computer security terms and mechanisms.
• describe fundamental security concepts.
• state computer security best practices.
• describe the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of security mechanisms and concepts.
• give examples of common security threats, threat sources, and threat motivations.
• explain their role in protecting their own physical and non-physical computing assets.
• discuss current events topics and read security articles in the popular press.
• assess computing actions in the context of security.

The curriculum has been broken down into several units and each unit includes pre-assessments, warm up problems, reading worksheets, classroom discussion guides, writing assignments, and chapter quizzes. Lessons come with differentiation and alternative instruction suggestions to help with strategies on how teachers can reach all learners.

In addition to these materials, a lab component is also being developed. The lab is designed to give students hands-on experience applying the concepts learned in the unit. The labs are designed as a series of exercises allowing students to not only experience security vulnerabilities, but also learn how to appropriately respond to them without compromising their computer or their personal information.