# Ideologies and Issues for Teaching Blockchain Cybersecurity in Management and Computer Science

**Authors:** Kenneth David Strang (APCC Research, Long Island, NY, USA) — ORCID 0000-0002-4333-4399; Ferdinand Che (American University of Nigeria, Yola, Nigeria); Narasimha Rao Vajjhala (American University of Nigeria, Yola, Nigeria) — ORCID 0000-0002-8260-2392
**Type:** Book chapter
**Source:** In Innovations in Cybersecurity Education, pp. 109–126, Springer
**Published:** 2020
**DOI:** https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50244-7_7
**Canonical page:** https://www.narasimharao.net/research/teaching-blockchain-cybersecurity-management-computer-science/
**Indexing:** Scopus

## Summary

**Question.** 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?

**Finding.** 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 it matters.** 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.

## Key findings

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.
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).
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.
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.
5. Citing Ryabova and Henderson, the chapter reports that around 88% of accounting students expressed interest in learning more about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
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.
7. The chapter concludes that blockchain technology is one of the essential components of modern cybersecurity higher education.

## Study at a glance

| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| 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 |

## 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].

## 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.).
- **Cybersecurity awareness:** The degree of users’ understanding of the importance of information security to protect organizational data and networks (Rahim et al.).
- **Andragogy:** An approach to teaching focused on helping adults learn to learn, contrasted in the chapter with pedagogy (lecturing and delivering materials).

## 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.

## How to cite

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

```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 = {K. Daimi and G. Francia III},
  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}
}
```