Education DCL: EAGER: Exploring New Pathways into Cybersecurity Careers for Rural English Learners through XR-enabled Educational Methods

教育 DCL：EAGER：通过支持 XR 的教育方法探索农村英语学习者网络安全职业的新途径

• 批准号: 2335751
• 负责人: Kimberly Zarecor
• 金额: $ 29.92万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2335751&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Education; DCL; EAGER; Exploring; New

Defending against cybersecurity attacks requires a well-trained cybersecurity workforce. Yet, worker shortages are increasingly threatening U.S. security and industrial growth. A potential untapped resource to help fill this shortage is the 38% of high school students who do not attend a four-year university after graduation. Many of these students, often from underserved populations, aspire to higher-skilled careers and postsecondary education, but they struggle to overcome barriers that limit their participation. This project uses Extended Reality (XR) technologies to encourage rural English Learner (EL) students to consider cybersecurity careers. An interdisciplinary team from Iowa State University leads the project in collaboration with partners in Storm Lake, Iowa, a growing rural meatpacking town with a large migrant and refugee population. The project's novelties are designing XR resource prototypes for EL students and evaluating their potential to increase students' interest in cybersecurity. The project's broader significance and importance are to assist EL students in training for higher-skilled, better-paid jobs that can improve conditions for their households and to bring more women and people from underserved communities into cybersecurity.This project considers rural EL students an untapped segment of the future workforce with significant potential to enter the cybersecurity field through postsecondary pathways such as certificates and associate degrees. Inspired by gaps in research on student transitions from high school into postsecondary education, this project encourages EL students to consider a cybersecurity career by increasing their interest and knowledge of the field. The project hypothesis is that using immersive and interactive XR technologies will significantly improve EL students' engagement and motivation with cybersecurity topics, which research shows are essential factors in choosing a career. The project goals are to: 1. Develop prototypes of co-designed XR-enabled educational resources. 2.Assess if these resources show promise with EL students. 3. Analyze project findings to guide future research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

防御网络安全攻击需要训练有素的网络安全劳动力。然而，工人短缺越来越威胁到美国的安全和工业增长。潜在的尚未开发的资源可以帮助填补这一短缺，这是38％的高中学生在毕业后未上四年的大学。这些学生中的许多人通常来自服务不足的人群，渴望进入高技能的职业和中学后教育，但他们努力克服限制他们参与的障碍。该项目使用扩展的现实（XR）技术来鼓励农村英语学习者（EL）学生考虑网络安全职业。来自爱荷华州立大学的跨学科团队与爱荷华州Storm Lake的合作伙伴合作，该项目是一个越来越多的乡村肉类包装小镇，移民和难民人口众多。该项目的新颖性是为EL学生设计XR资源原型，并评估他们增加学生对网络安全兴趣的潜力。该项目的重要意义和重要性是帮助El学生培训高技能，薪水更好的工作，可以改善其家庭的条件，并将更多的妇女和来自服务不足的社区的人带入网络安全性。该项目认为，农村EL学生认为未来的劳动力是未来的劳动力，并通过网络核心领域进行了巨大的潜力，可以进入网络上的领域，以便通过后辅助阶层和认证及其认证。受到从高中到高等教育的学生过渡的研究差距的启发，该项目鼓励EL学生通过增加对该领域的兴趣和了解来考虑网络安全职业。该项目的假设是，使用沉浸式和互动XR技术将显着改善El学生通过网络安全主题的参与和动力，这表明研究表明，这是选择职业的重要因素。项目目标是：1。开发共同设计的XR教育资源的原型。 2.调查这些资源是否表现出对EL学生的承诺。 3.分析项目调查结果以指导未来的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估值得支持。