The challenge
In early 2020, international students could no longer attend a foundations cybersecurity course in person. The course needed to move online quickly, but simply converting lectures and materials would have lost the academic presence, discussion and progressive problem-solving central to the face-to-face experience.
The project also had to work around a compressed timeline and limited academic availability.
The approach
Curio treated the academic's voice and teaching style as part of the learning design. Concepts were organised into scaffolded scenarios that progressed from familiar home-security questions to increasingly complex cybersecurity problems.
Media and peer-learning elements helped retain the sense of a course led by people rather than a sequence of uploaded resources.
What Curio delivered
- Activity-based scenarios with increasing complexity
- Weekly overview videos and podcasts featuring the academic lead
- Reflection videos featuring former students
- Peer-feedback activities for cryptography and security challenges
- Rapid design and production support through 2020 and 2021
- A coherent online model built around social learning and academic presence
The impact
UNSW was able to continue the course online under significant time pressure while retaining the academic personality and collaborative learning that distinguished the original experience.
