Designing a Security System Administration Course for Cybersecurity with a Companion Project

TL;DR

This paper presents the design of a secure system administration course integrated with a practical project, aimed at enhancing cybersecurity education through hands-on experience and alignment with accreditation standards.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive course structure and a companion project, PowerGrader, to improve practical cybersecurity skills in system administration education.

Findings

Course structure aligns with accreditation standards

PowerGrader project enhances hands-on learning

Emphasizes importance of security in system administration

Abstract

In the past few years, an incident response-oriented cybersecurity program has been constructed at University of Central Oklahoma. As a core course in the newly-established curricula, Secure System Administration focuses on the essential knowledge and skill set for system administration. To enrich students with hands-on experience, we also develop a companion coursework project, named PowerGrader. In this paper, we present the course structure as well as the companion project design. Additionally, we survey the pertinent criterion and curriculum requirements from the widely recognized accreditation units. By this means, we demonstrate the importance of a secure system administration course within the context of cybersecurity education.