Obstacle of Team Teaching and Collaborative Learning in Information Security

Marn-Ling Shing, Chen-Chi Shing, Kuo Lane Chen, Huei Lee

The field of information security includes diverse contents such as network security and computer forensics which are highly technical-oriented topics. In addition, information forensic requires the background of criminology. The information security also includes non-technical content such as information ethics and security laws. Because the diverse nature of information security, Shing et al. has proposed the use of team teaching and collaborative learning for the information security classes. Although team teaching seems to be efficient in information security, practically it needs a few challenges. The Purdue’s case mentioned in Shing’s paper has funding support of National Security Agency (NSA). However, a vast amount of resources may not be available for an instructor in a normal university. In addition, many obstacles are related to the administration problems. For example, how are the teaching evaluations computed if there are multiple instructors for a single course? How will instructors in a computer forensics class prepare students (criminal justice majors and information technology majors) before taking the same class with diverse background? The paper surveyed approximately 25 students in a university in Virginia concerning the satisfaction of team-teaching. Finally, this paper describes ways to meet those challenges.

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