In the early years of their development, federal cybersecurity initiatives have primarily targeted four-year colleges and universities, largely ignoring two-year colleges. Yet, two-year colleges educate 44% of U.S. undergraduates and serve millions of high school students. Furthermore, they provide continuing education and skill-upgrading opportunities to a large percentage of America's workforce.
This ATE Regional Center of Excellence addresses the need to build viable programs at two-year colleges. It incorporates six key entities: Oklahoma's Career and Technology Education (CareerTech) System; four of Oklahoma's largest two-year colleges (Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee, Rose State College, and Tulsa Community College); and the University of Tulsa, an NSA-designated national faculty development center, which serves as the principal training provider and mentor to the two-year institutions. These six entities cover almost 60% of Oklahoma's population and more than 70% of its IT workforce. By leveraging partnerships with other universities and two-year colleges, the center aims to provide education and training opportunities throughout Oklahoma and in major population centers in neighboring states.
The center is developing and disseminating information assurance and forensics curricula to two-year colleges, both regionally and nationally; offering professional development opportunities to instructors from two-year colleges and assisting them in building programs at their own institutions; and designing and implementing workforce development programs in information assurance and forensics, which contribute to economic development and the national homeland security effort.
The center's curriculum has five core areas: (1) information assurance, (2) secure electronic commerce, (3) network security, (4) enterprise security management, and (5) forensics. This curriculum covers the breadth of the discipline, including its technical, operational, and managerial dimensions, and related legal and ethical issues. The curriculum and its intense laboratory component have been incorporated into associate degree and certificate programs in cybersecurity and are mapped to industry (Cisco, Microsoft) and vendor-neutral (CompTIA, SCP, CIW) certifications and federal (CNSS) standards. The curriculum is continuously refined and upgraded. Traditional curriculum dissemination and delivery efforts are enhanced by an e-learning network, a Web-based repository, and mobile laboratories.
The instructor training and program building efforts employ a tiered "train-the-trainer" model designed for scalability and self-sustaining growth. The model is complemented by curriculum working group meetings, faculty development workshops, and residency opportunities. From its beginning with 13 instructors at 8 sites, the center aims to incorporate 84 expert instructors teaching courses at 10 CareerTech centers and 18 two-year colleges in Oklahoma and 5 neighboring states (Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas).
The center has strong mechanisms for recruiting, retaining, and placing members of underrepresented groups and underprivileged individuals. Minority students and females constitute, respectively, 30% and 50% of the participating institutions' enrollments. Moreover, first-generation college students constitute more than 50% of enrollments.
Finally, broad participation by industry, government, and the military and strong support from Oklahoma's Governor, Secretary of Commerce, and Chancellor of Higher Education ensure that the center is contributing to homeland security initiatives, workforce creation, and economic development, as well as to academic programs at two-year institutions in Oklahoma and in neighboring states.
, is a cohesive partnership of community colleges and career and technology centers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, and the University of Tulsa, which serves as the principal training entity and mentor to CSEC's two-year institutions. As a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education Regional Center, CSEC’s primary objective has been to create and operate cyber security programs of the highest quality. CSEC's three-fold mission has been to (i) develop and disseminate cyber security curricula for two-year institutions, (ii) offer professional development opportunities to faculty members and assist them in building programs, and (iii) design and implement workforce development programs in cyber security that contribute to economic development and the national homeland security effort. CSEC has created rigorous, hands-on cyber security curricula encompassing five core areas: information assurance principles, secure electronic commerce, network security, enterprise security management, and digital forensics. These core areas cover the breadth of the discipline, including its technical, operational and managerial dimensions, and legal and ethical issues. Articulation agreements provide students with seamless educational pathways all the way through doctoral degrees. As of May 2011, ten CSEC institutions offered CNSS certifications, and two CSEC institutions were designated as Centers of Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. CSEC has had a significant and broad impact since it was launched in 2004. As of May 2011, CSEC comprised 52 two-year institutions and 126 active faculty members in its eight-state region of operation (Figure 1). CSEC institutions offered 34 distinct cyber security courses in addition to 51 other courses that incorporate cyber security topics. CSEC institutions offered a total of nineteen A.A.S. or A.S. degrees and 21 certificates of mastery. Two CSEC institutions actively served military installations. A state-of-the-art virtual laboratory and a dozen mobile laboratories have enabled faculty members to deploy cyber security learning modules at numerous locations across CSEC's eight-state region. In May 2011, CSEC institutions had 1,123 declared security degree majors and 644 students pursuing cyber security related certificates of mastery. During the 2010-11 academic year, CSEC institutions served 1,038 incumbent workers, who attended symposia, workshops, courses or degree programs. Since 2004, 550 CSEC students have received associate's degrees and 171 students have received bachelor’s degrees specializing in cyber security. In addition, 1,015 students have received cyber security certifications. CSEC's remarkable growth is the result of its highly successful faculty development program, which comprises five weeklong information assurance and digital forensics courses based on its core curricula. Several hundred faculty members from around the country have completed CSEC faculty development courses and have proceeded to refine existing programs or create new programs in information assurance and/or digital forensics at their home institutions.
