Educators' Perspectives on Cybersecurity Educational Resources

While a growing number and variety of cybersecurity educational resources exist, there is a lack of teacher perspective on how the resources are used in practice and how they serve teaching and learning needs. This thesis aims to understand teachers' and creators' perspectives about what makes cybersecurity educational material effective and engaging for their students. We conducted two studies with 15 Canadian teachers and 8 creators of educational resources. We found that both creators and teachers shared similar preferences about what makes educational resources effective and engaging. In general, both groups agreed on what types of resources teachers need to teach cybersecurity to tweens in the classroom. However, we identified several gaps and constraints for both parties that hindered the effectiveness and dissemination of available resources. We make specific design recommendations and best practices to help optimize the effectiveness and adoption of resources for teachers.