The world is becoming more digital - this offers great opportunities, but also creates high levels of stress. Increasing digitization is also causing anxiety and excessive demands among students and academics. Increasing demands in dealing with different platforms, applications and services as well as the lack of time, learning options and background knowledge can cause serious security problems in universities.
The project "Self-learning Academy for Cyber and Information Security, SecAware.NRW" aims to remedy this situation. The Institute for Internet Security (if(is)) at the University of Westphalia and the Institute for the Digitization of Working and Living Environments (IDiAL) at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences won the project in a call for proposals issued by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim is to create an online learning program for universities in NRW that raises users' awareness and builds up or strengthens the relevant IT skills in the context of cyberattacks.
Content for Moodle and ILIAS
The content is implemented on the Moodle and ILIAS learning platforms and covers the entire field of cyber and information security. "Our goal is to provide students and scientists* with the necessary knowledge and security awareness so that universities in NRW can shape a secure and trustworthy digital future," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Norbert Pohlmann, head of if(is).
"A particular challenge lies in the intuitive design of the platform, as the self-learning offerings should be usable without training," adds Prof. Dr. Andrea Kienle, a member of IDiAL.
The start date for SecAware.NRW is still planned for 2021; the project will run for two years.