Forencity: A playground for self-motivated learning in computer forensics

Abstract

Striking a balance between theory and practice in computer forensics education is considered essential to producing successful graduates with the necessary skills to take on cybersecurity challenges in the workplace. Adequately incorporating both such aspects can be particularly challenging, especially in courses or modules offered within a short time-frame. In such situations, preparing the students will require that they are incentivized to actively engage with the extensive background learning material and remain current on latest developments to correctly grasp the theoretical underpinning of the subject. In this paper, we describe the development of an adventure game to make the learning of applicable theory attractive and relevant. ForenCity takes the form of a web-based scavenger hunt in which students must apply their knowledge of computer forensics and correctly process digital evidence and progress through the game.