The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of middle school education. It influenced how educators teach in the classroom and increased the number of online tools and resources available for them to use. The educational technology (EdTech) sector boomed with different applications designed to help educators instruct and assess their students in virtual learning environments. Though many EdTech companies developed applications that were instrumental in helping students and teachers, some of these applications were designed to collect sensitive information (e.g., data habits, keystrokes, and contact lists). In addition, many EdTech companies distributed or sold this sensitive information to third-party companies whose purpose may or may not have been for education. To address this complex issue, the author developed an instructional module designed to train middle school teachers about cybersecurity issues. The goal of the instruction was to help these educators protect themselves and their students from cyber threats. The instruction itself used a variety of instructional design principles, as well as digital safety models and teaching and learning strategies.
To evaluate the instruction, the author conducted both usability and learning effectiveness studies. Four people (n = 4) participated in the usability study, which evaluated the instruction’s design, navigation, and content. Participants were given tasks to determine if changes to the instruction needed to be made. Once the usability study was completed, the data was analyzed and used to make changes before the learning effectiveness evaluation. Nineteen people (n = 19) participated in the learning effectiveness study, which evaluated how much participants learned after completing the module. The results of the evaluation revealed that the instructional module could be used to help train educators on cybersecurity issues in the future.
Cleve Hamasaki