Enabling advanced topics in computing and engineering through authentic inquiry: A cybersecurity case study

Abstract

With the adoption of pedagogical practices such as Authentic Science and Inquiry-based projects within collegiate level classrooms, researchers focused on delivering advanced concepts investigated the level of student success in conducting authentic science during a six-week long inquiry project. Two main questions are explored: 1) do students working on self-guided, problem-based projects, engage in active inquiry? and 2) is there alignment between exemplar active inquiry projects and other assessments? This pilot research study focuses on twelve self-selected projects from a group of 33 engineering students all taking an introductory computer security course. Based on the existing body of literature surrounding Authentic Science and Authentic Inquiry the researchers performed a mixed methods study which, while focused predominately on the artifacts generated by the students also includes quantitative assessment of the artifacts themselves. Each of the five student-generated artifacts (proposal, mid-term report, final report, poster, and presentation), were analyzed for their alignment with the ten common traits of Authentic Science and Inquiry. In the preliminary analysis an unweighted percent-alignment metric was used and compared to the overall instructor-derived assessment score and an independent peer-survey. The overall results, inline with a body of K12 research, projects with more authentic inquiry traits tend to be of a higher quality and thus higher instructor-based assessment scores. When it comes to peer-assessment scores, only half of the authentic inquiry traits are found to have significant impact outcomes - these tend to relate to humanistic properties and soft-skills - e.g. real-world impact, communication, collaboration, and enabling access to a broader community. Results seen in this work continue to motivate the re-use and adoption of pedagogical practices at the collegiate STEM level that have already been vetted by other educational communities, especially those found within the K-12 STEM educational research community.