Teaching Program Design and Implementation in a Digital Forensics Context

Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) is a cross-disciplinary field that connects advanced information technologies, systems, algorithms, and databases with international, national and homeland security related applications. In this poster, we present results of evaluating a teaching module that we developed for the ISI discipline. Developed for an undergraduate course on computer program design for digital forensics, our module uses inquiry-based learning and engages students through discussion, hands-on practices, and various exercises. We have deployed the labs to 3 semesters of CS2 classes of 70 students. Results show that students who completed the labs achieved a significantly higher performance than those who did not complete the lab.