[FEATURED IN JISE] What You Need to Know about Gamification Process of Cybersecurity Hands-on Lab Exercises: Lessons and Challenges

Abstract: Cybersecurity education is becoming increasingly important in modern society, and hands-on practice is an essential element. Although instructors provide hands-on labs in their cybersecurity courses, traditional lab exercises often fail to effectively motivate students. Hence, many instructors desire to incorporate gamification in hands-on training to engage and motivate cybersecurity students, especially beginner learners. Given the dearth of guiding examples, this paper aims to describe the holistic process of converting traditional cybersecurity hands-on lab exercises to gamified lab exercises in an undergraduate network security course. We find that the gamified cybersecurity lab promotes students’ engagement, learning experience, and learning outcomes. The results show the positive acceptance of gamification by students as well as instructors. While gamification has been used in competitions and training, the success in the classroom and students’ desire for more gamification show that further investment in gamification will be more important in the classroom. We expect this paper to help instructors who are interested in gamification 1) convert traditional lab exercises to gamified labs; 2) estimate the extra workload and potential benefits; and 3) plan resources for implementation. This process is applicable to any cybersecurity courses with hands-on assignments.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, Gamification, Game-based learning, Teaching tip

https://jise.org/Volume34/n4/JISE2023v34n4pp387-405.pdf

Summary of the Paper:

The paper, What You Need to Know about Gamification Process of Cybersecurity Hands-on Lab Exercises: Lessons and Challenges, discusses the process of integrating gamification into cybersecurity hands-on lab exercises for undergraduate students. The study highlights the importance of engagement in cybersecurity education and presents a structured workflow for transforming traditional cybersecurity lab exercises into gamified ones.

Key takeaways include:

1. Challenges with Traditional Cybersecurity Labs – Students often struggle with engagement and motivation in traditional cybersecurity labs.
2. Gamification Benefits – Gamification can improve student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes.
3. Implementation Framework – The paper presents a four-stage process for gamifying cybersecurity labs:
   • Stage 1: Game Structure – Reviewing and organizing tasks, developing story scenarios.
   • Stage 2: Game Rules – Designing rewards, penalties, leaderboards, and badges.
   • Stage 3: Implementation – Deploying the gamified lab using a Learning Management System (LMS).
   • Stage 4: Game Delivery – Conducting the gamified lab with students and measuring effectiveness.
4. Results and Findings – Students who participated in the gamified lab outperformed those in non-gamified labs. They also reported higher motivation and engagement.
5. Use of Gametize – The authors used Gametize as their chosen gamification platform due to its simplicity, efficiency, and ability to support various challenge types.

How Gametize is Involved:

Gametize played a crucial role in implementing the gamified cybersecurity labs by:

• Hosting the gamified lab structure – Organizing tasks and challenges into a clear, linear format.
• Supporting interactive challenges – Enabling multiple-choice, fixed-answer, and open-ended question formats.
• Providing gamification elements – Including leaderboards, badges, reward points, and instant feedback.
• Facilitating engagement tracking – Allowing instructors to monitor student progress in real time.

The study ultimately found that using Gametize helped improve student performance, motivation, and engagement in cybersecurity education​.

Let me know if you need a more detailed breakdown or insights!