Enhancing cryptography education via visualization tools

ABSTRACT

Visualization has become a very popular tool in teaching Information Assurance courses. This paper presents several visualization strategies to engage students in learning cryptography concepts, algorithms, protocols and applications in a blended learning environment. Simply listening to a lecture or attending a physical computing laboratory to explore cryptograph concepts for numerous reasons, may not be ideal. Passive involvement of students in their learning process generally leads to a limited retention of knowledge. Students today have excellent visual-spatial reasoning skills and the instructional methods chosen should be visual and require active participation. We are exploring several visualization technologies in hopes of helping students to master encryption/decryption concepts quickly and effectively.

References

1. Ali Mayouf, M. and Shukur, Z. 2009. Using Animation in Active Learning Tool to Detect Possible Attacks in Cryptographic Protocols. In Proceedings of the 1st international Visual informatics Conference on Visual informatics: Bridging Research and Practice (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 11--13, 2009)., 510--520.
2. Cattaneo, G., De Santis, A., and Ferraro Petrillo, U. 2008. Visualization of cryptographic protocols with GRACE. J. Vis. Lang. Comput. 19, 2 (Apr. 2008), 258--290.
3. Abu-Naser, S. S., 2008. Developing visualization tool for teaching AI searching algorithms. Inform. Technol. J., 7: 350--355.
4. Kevin R. Lawrence and Hongmei Chi. 2009. Framework for the design of web-based learning for digital forensics labs. In Proceedings of the 47th Annual Southeast Regional Conference (ACM-SE 47). Article 76, 4 pages
5. Schweitzer, D. and Brown, W. 2009. Using visualization to teach security. J. Comput. Small Coll. 24, 5 (May. 2009), 143--150.
6. Benjamin Weyers, Wolfram Luther, and Nelson Baloian. 2011. Interface creation and redesign techniques in collaborative learning scenarios. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 27, 1 (January 2011), 127--138
7. Xiaohong Yuan, Percy Vega, Yaseen Qadah, Ricky Archer, Huiming Yu, and Jinsheng Xu. 2010. Visualization Tools for Teaching Computer Security. Trans. Comput. Educ. 9, 4, Article 20, 28 pages.

Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Computing / technology policy

    • Computer crime

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Computing education programs

        • Computer science education

        • Information science education