Abstract: Students need real-world experience. Industry needs graduating students entering the workforce to be skilled in relevant subject matter, critical thinking, and communication skills. Community-based nonprofit organizations, as well as small businesses, need help in building organizational capacity. Instructors also benefit from periodic observation of organizational work in the instructor’s area of teaching. A service-learning course that is focused on capacity building is a means to reach all of these goals. This article presents a roadmap for teaching a service-learning course in information security risk assessment. Students work in teams on a term-long project conducting an on-site risk assessment, making security recommendations, and producing and presenting a final security risk report to an organization’s management. Teaching tips are offered on course planning, launch, materials, and execution.

Keywords: Service-learning, Security, Information assurance & security, Teaching tip, Soft skills, Team-oriented problem solving

Download this article: JISE - Volume 29 Issue 4, Page 183.pdf

Recommended Citation: Spears, J. L. (2018). Teaching Tip: Gaining Real-World Experience in Information Security: A Roadmap for a Service-Learning Course. Journal of Information Systems Education, 29(4), 183-202.