An integral pedagogical strategy for teaching and learning IoT cybersecurity

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) has become a fundamental content of any engineering program due to the emerging need of experts in this field. However, the complexity of technologies that interact in IoT environments and the amount of different professional profiles required to design, implement and manage IoT environments, considering cybersecurity as a must, has led to a huge challenge in the educational world. This paper proposes an integral pedagogical strategy for learning IoT cybersecurity structured in three different stages, in a higher education institution. These stages focus not only on the content about IoT and cybersecurity but also on the competencies to acquire, the most suitable learning methodologies and the expected learning outcomes. The association of these concepts in each stage is detailed. Examples of courses are explained, the related competencies and learning outcomes are specified, and the contents and methodologies to achieve the expected results are described. An analysis of student results and stakeholder evaluations is provided to verify if the pedagogical strategy proposed is suitable. Furthermore, students’ feedback is included to corroborate the innovation, the suitability of the acquired skills, and the overall student satisfaction with the related courses and consequently with the proposed IoT cybersecurity pedagogical strategy.