This project, Virtual Tools for Expanding the Cyber Horizon, or VTECH, aims to prepare a science and engineering workforce to use and protect the nation's cyberinfrastructure. To this end, the proposed project will leverage the NSF-funded Virtual Network Engineering Laboratory (VNEL): Students remotely manipulate equipment and conduct well-defined problem-solving exercises in a controlled, high fidelity environment via the Internet using their web browsers. VNEL enables instruction to be efficiently and effectively distributed across geographic regions, thereby reaching greater numbers of students, including traditionally underrepresented students than would be possible through traditional face-to-face or on-site laboratory instruction. Moreover, this authentic environment has already been shown to reduce costs and increase facility use among university students. The approach for the proposed project is to enhance and deliver instruction using virtual collaboration. The partners for the project are the departments of Education Psychology, Computer Science and the Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies, the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), and Del Mar Community College. The project will combine the technological innovation of the VNEL, the pedagogical expertise of educators, the participation of a representative Hispanic serving community college and the implementation and dissemination experience of TEEX. Project objectives and expected outcomes include the following:
1. Train teachers, instructors, students, technical leaders and small business owners in 4 community tier-three colleges in Year 1 and 11 community tier-three colleges in Year 2 to implement and deliver educationally sound and sustainable cyber security and cyberinfrastructure courses to students and small business owners. Of the 15 institutions, three are Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) and the remaining 12 are Hispanic serving institutions (HSI). 2. Provide for continuous improvement of VNEL instruction through implementation cycles of development research, evaluation, and revision. 3. Develop and apply novel engineering technologies to support the scalability of the VNEL toward rich and high-fidelity experiential learning for large numbers of students and institutions. 4. Enable sustainable offering of VNEL service beyond Year 2 and broaden the scale for national delivery.
