Modern Approaches to Cybersecurity Education

Key Details

Approximate Total Workload: 78 hours (3 ECTS)

The micro-credential is designed to fit around professional and personal commitments through a blended online learning approach. Participants will complete:

• Optional live online lectures: 14 hours
• Independent practical exercises: 14 hours
• Practical team project: 34 hours
• Private study, online consultations, and examination preparation: 16 hours

Assessment

Grading Breakdown

20% Weekly Tests

Short online assessments completed throughout the first six weeks to reinforce learning and monitor participants’ progress.

20% Practical Team Project

Participants work in teams of 2–3 to design and deliver an original cybersecurity training session, applying the pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, and educational tools introduced throughout the course. The project is presented during a final online defence, where each team member demonstrates their individual contribution.

60% Online Examination

A proctored online examination evaluates participants’ understanding of the pedagogical principles, cybersecurity education methods, and practical skills covered throughout the module. The exam is conducted online with instructors present and includes questions covering all core module topics.

Passing Requirements

To successfully complete the micro-credential, participants must achieve at least 50% in each assessment component (weekly tests, practical team project, and online examination).

Subjects covered

Week 1 – Adult Learning Principles and Effective Methods for Cybersecurity Educators: This lecture introduces the core principles of pedagogy and adult learning, guiding participants through foundational teaching theories, learner motivation, and lesson planning. It explores the differences between child and adult learners, emphasizing andragogy, acculturation, and motivation. Participants will also learn how to define learning objectives, address diverse learner types, and design effective, engaging lessons.

Week 2 – Cybersecurity Training and Evaluation Methods for Students: This lecture presents interactive cybersecurity education methods, like board games, simulations, types of materials, typical infrastructure used for teaching and training, methods used in teaching cybersecurity topics, student-teacher interaction and evaluation tools to modify content to students’ needs and assess learning.

Week 3 – Innovative Content Creation with AI and Multimedia Tools for Engaged Learning: This lecture presents different tools for image, audio and video editing and the creation of interactive and asynchronous content and digital material with a focus on learning styles, gamification, motivation and knowledge retainment. It includes the use of AI to create customized learning material.

Week 4 – Collaborative Tools and Interactive Presenting: This lecture evaluates various interactive cybersecurity education methods and helps participants in developing engaging and interactive teaching strategies while improving their presentation skills.

Week 5 – Understanding the Needs of SMEs – Crisis Communications on a Shoestring: This lecture introduces to SMEs and Their Unique Cybersecurity Challenges, Crisis Communications on a Budget: Key Principles, Internal & External Stakeholder Communications: This lecture is designed to help participants in understand the critical importance of crisis communications for SMEs facing cybersecurity incidents. With limited budgets and minimal internal expertise, SMEs are particularly vulnerable to the reputational and operational consequences of cyber-attacks. This lecture offers participants a practical, hands-on approach to teaching SME owners/managers how to prepare for, manage, and recover from such incidents with limited resources.

Week 6 – Practical Cybersecurity Considerations for SMEs: In this lecture participants will learn how to use online tools to uncover high-level issues on web-facing software, how to develop short in-person or hybrid/synchronous courses can be delivered internally or via an intranet — also creating an online asynchronous internal course in bite-sized chunks for time-poor people to continue engaging in upskilling. How to engage with internal resources to turn the weakness (people are an SME’s biggest weakness) into first line of defense. Engaging continuous assessment for asynchronous courses and online commercial resources for phishing simulations.

Week 7 – Classroom communication and presentation skills for cybersecurity educators: In this final lecture, participants present their capstone projects—interactive teaching tools, instructional videos, or other educational resources they have developed over the course. Each presentation demonstrates the participant’s ability to apply cybersecurity education methods, integrate appropriate tools, and communicate complex topics effectively to a target audience. The lecture emphasizes peer feedback, reflective discussion, and evaluation based on pedagogical soundness, creativity, and technical accuracy.

Learning objectives

Knowledge – The graduate can:

• describe different materials, delivery methods and infrastructure components used in cybersecurity education

• explain the principles for aligning trainee group requirements with appropriate learning materials and instructional delivery methods.

Skills – The graduate can:

• develop materials for cybersecurity classes

• deploy the infrastructure for delivery of training materials

• create interactive media content for cybersecurity topics

• evaluate education methods and develop teaching strategies

• support SMEs in live incident communication

Competence – The graduate can:

• think creatively and work independently

• plan and organize their own activities

• collaborate effectively within a team

• organize a cybersecurity training

• prove personalized support to trainees

Module leaders

Name: Sara Ricci

Title: Dr.

Organisation: Brno University of Technology