Book chapter · 2020
Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science
In Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, pp. 109–126, Springer · Published
Summary
Strang et al. (2020) examined the ideologies universities apply to teach blockchain and cybersecurity in management science and computer science, combining a literature search of ProQuest Central and EBSCO with their own teaching experience and cybersecurity curriculum frameworks. The search returned only five relevant peer-reviewed papers, which, with the authors’ teaching experience, led to a proposed conceptual typology with two dimensions: stakeholder classification, from application programmers to managerial decision-makers, and teaching ideology, from theoretical to hands-on delivery. The chapter concludes that blockchain is an essential component of modern cybersecurity higher education.
Practical implication. University decision-makers and academic administrators can use the proposed typology for teaching blockchain to help design and deliver cybersecurity and risk management degrees.
- The Problem
- Universities are beginning to teach blockchain as part of cybersecurity, but there was no framework for how to teach it to management and computer science students.
- The Methodology
- Conceptual chapter combining a literature search (ProQuest Central and EBSCO) with the authors’ teaching experience and cybersecurity curriculum frameworks (ACM CSEC, ABET, CAE) to develop a two-dimensional teaching typology.
- The Core Finding
- A literature search found only five relevant peer-reviewed papers, which — with the authors’ teaching experience — led to a two-dimensional teaching typology (stakeholder role from programmer to managerial decision-maker; teaching ideology from theoretical to hands-on). The chapter concludes that blockchain is an essential component of modern cybersecurity education.
- The Citation
- Strang, K. D., Che, F., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2020). Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science. In K. Daimi & G. Francia III (Eds.), Innovations in Cybersecurity Education (pp. 109–126). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7
The summary, key findings, methods, implications and relevance notes on this page are this website’s own description of the chapter, written from the published abstract and text. The official abstract and citation details are given further down.
Key findings
- Finding 1. A search of ProQuest Central and EBSCO using the keywords “blockchain” and “teach” returned only five relevant peer-reviewed papers on teaching blockchain in higher education — one journal article, one book section and three conference papers.
- Finding 2. The reviewed cases taught blockchain in two contrasting ways: as a managerial or financial technology decision-making topic for business students (e.g., Kursh and Gold, Negash and Thomas, Dettling) or as application design and programming for computer science students (e.g., Liu’s Java-based ChainTutor, Rao and Dave’s Raspberry Pi labs at Princeton).
- Finding 3. The authors propose a conceptual typology for teaching blockchain with two dimensions: stakeholder classification, ranging from application programmers through application designers to managerial decision-makers, and teaching ideology, ranging from wholly theoretical to kinetic, hands-on delivery.
- Finding 4. The chapter notes that close to 70,000 cybersecurity incidents were reported in 2014 and a shortage of two million cybersecurity professionals was forecast for 2019–2020, driving demand for cybersecurity education in management and computer science.
- Finding 5. Citing Ryabova and Henderson, the chapter reports that around 88% of accounting students expressed interest in learning more about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
- Finding 6. The authors argue that blockchain’s distributed ledger is particularly attractive for cybersecurity in emerging economies, where there is a tendency to distrust centralized authority, and that cybersecurity curricula there should emphasize both key knowledge areas and practical skills.
- Finding 7. The chapter concludes that blockchain technology is one of the essential components of modern cybersecurity higher education.
Source: Strang et al. (2020), In Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, pp. 109–126, Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7
The chapter in detail
What question does this chapter answer?
What ideologies or rationales are universities applying to teach blockchain and cybersecurity in management science and computer science, and what critical issues are shaping future cybersecurity and blockchain education?
What did the chapter find, in detail?
A search of ProQuest Central and EBSCO for “blockchain” and “teach” returned only five relevant peer-reviewed papers, which — together with the authors’ own teaching experience — showed blockchain being taught either as a managerial decision-making issue for business students or as application design and programming for computing students. The authors synthesize these into a conceptual typology with two dimensions, stakeholder classification (from application programmers to managerial decision-makers) and teaching ideology (theoretical to hands-on/kinetic delivery), and conclude that blockchain is an essential component of modern cybersecurity higher education.
Why does it matter?
The typology can help university decision-makers and academic administrators design and deliver cybersecurity and risk management degrees, and help students decide what to study. The authors argue that cybersecurity curricula, especially in emerging economies, should balance core security knowledge with practical skills and include blockchain, given workforce shortages and the growth of distributed technologies.
Methods and data
| Research question | What ideologies do universities apply to teach blockchain and cybersecurity, and what issues drive future cybersecurity education? |
|---|---|
| Design | Conceptual book chapter combining a literature review with the authors’ teaching experience |
| Data | Five peer-reviewed papers on teaching blockchain (ProQuest Central and EBSCO search), plus non-peer-reviewed sources and cybersecurity curriculum frameworks (ACM CSEC, ABET, CAE) |
| Methods | Qualitative review and classification of teaching cases; development of a conceptual typology |
| Main result | Blockchain is taught either as a managerial decision-making topic or as application design/programming; a two-dimension typology (stakeholder classification × teaching ideology) synthesizes these approaches |
| Implication | Universities, especially in emerging economies, should embed blockchain in interdisciplinary cybersecurity curricula that balance knowledge and practical skills |
| Citation | Strang et al. (2020) · DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7 |
Definitions and key terms
- Blockchain
- A distributed and decentralized database of all transactions executed among participating nodes, in which cryptographically linked blocks form an immutable, auditable ledger (Shrestha et al.). — as used in Strang et al. (2020)
- Cybersecurity awareness
- The degree of users’ understanding of the importance of information security to protect organizational data and networks (Rahim et al.). — as used in Strang et al. (2020)
- Andragogy
- An approach to teaching focused on helping adults learn to learn, contrasted in the chapter with pedagogy (lecturing and delivering materials). — as used in Strang et al. (2020)
Opening summary
Cybersecurity has become a high-demand topic in management science and computer science higher education at universities around the world. The demand stems from the workforce need to educate and train managers and cybersecurity professionals about risk management and decision-making, especially in the cybersecurity domain. Additionally, the demand also emanates from technology companies and government departments, who need specialists trained to design, program, and debug contemporary cybersecurity systems. There is an increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals with a steady yearly growth rate of more than 6% expected until 2020 [1]. The demand for cybersecurity professionals across various domains, including accounting, finance, and logistics, is also in the rise apart from the core computing and information systems disciplines. Close to 70,000 cybersecurity incidents were reported in 2014, and a consistent increase of 10% was observed over the next fiscal year as well [2]. A shortage of two million cybersecurity professionals was forecasted for the 2019–2020 fiscal year [2]. The demand for cybersecurity education is increasing in developed as well as emerging nations. The reasons for the growing demand in cybersecurity education is connected to the fact that many countries are engaged with global trade and with the advances in telecommunication a significant proportion of global trade is increasingly conducted via the Internet [3]. Furthermore, most of these countries have a growing young-aged middle class with money to spend on computer science and management science education [3].
This chapter has no published abstract; its opening paragraph is reproduced from Innovations in Cybersecurity Education.
Limitations
- The authors note that the literature search returned only five relevant peer-reviewed papers, which they attribute to limited academic interest in teaching blockchain within the IT education domain.
Practical implications
- Academic administrators and university decision-makers designing cybersecurity and risk management degrees, and students deciding what to study, can draw on the proposed typology for teaching blockchain, which spans stakeholder classification and teaching ideology.
- Universities, especially in emerging economies, should design cybersecurity curricula that balance core security knowledge with practical skills and include blockchain, according to the authors.
- Universities teaching blockchain can consider two approaches shown by the reviewed papers and the authors’ teaching experience: teaching it as a managerial decision-making issue for business students, or as application design and programming for computing students.
- Researchers designing blockchain and cybersecurity curricula should note that the chapter’s literature search returned only five relevant peer-reviewed papers, which the authors attribute to limited academic interest in teaching blockchain within the IT education domain.
Drawn from Strang et al. (2020), In Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, pp. 109–126, Springer.
When this research may be relevant
This chapter may be relevant to researchers designing blockchain and cybersecurity curricula in management and computer science programmes, comparing theoretical and hands-on teaching ideologies, or mapping stakeholder groups from programmers to managerial decision-makers in cybersecurity education.
Research topics addressed: blockchain; cybersecurity education; higher education; curriculum design; teaching ideology; management science education; computer science education; Internet of Things (IoT); risk management; distributed ledger technology; cryptocurrency; emerging economies; pedagogy and andragogy; conceptual typology
How to cite
- APA 7
- Strang, K. D., Che, F., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2020). Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science. In K. Daimi & G. Francia III (Eds.), Innovations in Cybersecurity Education (pp. 109–126). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7
- MLA 9
- Strang, Kenneth David, et al. “Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science.” Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, edited by K. Daimi and G. Francia III, Springer, 2020, pp. 109–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7.
- IEEE
- K. D. Strang, F. Che, and N. R. Vajjhala, “Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science,” in Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, K. Daimi and G. Francia III, Eds. Springer, 2020, pp. 109–126, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7.
BibTeX
@incollection{strang2020teaching,
title = {Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science},
author = {Strang, Kenneth David and Che, Ferdinand and Vajjhala, Narasimha Rao},
booktitle = {Innovations in Cybersecurity Education},
editor = {Daimi, K. and Francia III, G.},
pages = {109--126},
year = {2020},
publisher = {Springer},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7}
}RIS
TY - CHAP TI - Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science AU - Strang, Kenneth David AU - Che, Ferdinand AU - Vajjhala, Narasimha Rao ED - Daimi, K. ED - Francia III, G. T2 - Innovations in Cybersecurity Education PY - 2020 DA - 2020/11/22 SP - 109 EP - 126 PB - Springer DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7 UR - https://www.narasimharao.net/research/teaching-blockchain-cybersecurity-management-computer-science/ LA - en ER -
Links and files
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7
- This page as text: https://www.narasimharao.net/research/teaching-blockchain-cybersecurity-management-computer-science/paper.md
- Permanent address of this page: https://www.narasimharao.net/research/teaching-blockchain-cybersecurity-management-computer-science/
Related research
Related publications
A systematic review of 28 empirical studies (2015–2025) found mixed but promising outcomes: integrated approaches outperform purely functional ones, benefits for mathematical reasoning and abstract thinking are consistent, and transfer to mainstream object-oriented languages is selective.
The volume reframes computational thinking as a discipline-independent skill set and provides lesson plans, case studies, tools and strategies for embedding it in fields well beyond computing, from educational robotics to digital marketing and literature.
The volume compiles evidence on risk and contingency management across nations and industries — from petroleum and automotive risk models to cybersecurity, healthcare informatics and educational inequality — offering business leaders lessons for future crises.
The chapter identifies seven technologies as imperative for digital business, explains each one’s applications, benefits and challenges, and shows how their interplay affects business strategy, operations and innovation.
Unsupervised machine learning (t-SNE with radial and correspondence analysis) applied to hypertext from US higher-education websites (a sample of 848), containing over 4,000 potential indicators, scored breach likelihood on a 1–3 scale and flagged concentrations of higher-risk components; a combined control feature was the most useful risk signal.