Blogging:
The most difficult portion of this course was ... the blogging portion! While I am not very talented with coming up with new topics, I felt that keeping focused on one target topic was difficult to do even when I didn't have to go through and get sources! The challenge was more with having too much freedom and wondering how to be creative enough with pictures, videos, diagrams, etc.
While this was the difficult part, I would certainly not get rid of it or remove it from the course. I do believe that most folks coming up with technology are "gun-shy" from making posts like this online with their name tied to it. Everything on the internet is now permanent --meaning that these very sentences can be used to reference my name. So speaking with a lesser form of understanding on a topic or from a position/mindset can come back and give someone an opinion of us. That all being said, I believe that not doing this limits the creativity and willingness to address issues as they arise from a collaborative approach. I may not have the right direction or ability to fix something, but I could start talking with someone who has an idea that can move many readers in the right direction to solve security related issues. That is the beauty of blogging.
Capstone Assignment:
The capstone assignment was all around an interesting assignment that challenges students to overcome a typical 3rd party security consult for an organization. This semester, it made us think like we were on the job and working with an audience/customer that didn't know the whole world of cyber security. This required us to analyze everything as a IT person while presenting it as a marketer (knowing the audience, speaking at their level of understanding and verify they can interpret/ingest everything).
Overall, the project required knowledge of how to assess an environment, create visio diagrams, perform risk assessments, looks at lists of vulnerabilities, cost analysis, likelihood, etc. However, there was a good deal of overlap from the risk assessment course (in terms of the target case environment). I think that we should have had a different environment so the risk assessment tables would be different. While there were a couple changes, this was not enough to stimulate as much of a deeper dive. I also think that the client presentations should have some form of template. The assumption is that we are supposed to be able to provide some sort of consulting services, and I think a course that worked more to translate IT into the business world would be useful. Such as a half way course for integrating IT with a MBA-like or CIO role.
One thing that I wish we could change is the way discussion posts are done. I wish that there was a better way for us to communicate. I often times don't appreciate how shallow conversation posts are and I don't think they stimulate critical thinking for most folks. I wish that there were some sort of seminar hours where we could all get together on a web chat and talk with one another and the professor. I understand that the most prominent aspect of an online education is the flexibility, but perhaps do a chat sort of like the 'Marco Polo' application. This is where everyone is able to take and save/submit clips to perform a discussion in person over the course of a week. I think that would kill the redundancy and require folks to think more about cheesy posts.
Well, I believe this is my last post for my graduate degree =D
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