Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education
Testbeds are widely used in experiential learning, providing practical assessments and bridging classroom material with real-world applications. However, manually managing and provisioning student lab environments consumes significant preparation time for instructors. The growing demand for advanced...
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MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| author | David Arnold John Ford Jafar Saniie |
| author_facet | David Arnold John Ford Jafar Saniie |
| author_sort | David Arnold |
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| description | Testbeds are widely used in experiential learning, providing practical assessments and bridging classroom material with real-world applications. However, manually managing and provisioning student lab environments consumes significant preparation time for instructors. The growing demand for advanced technical skills, such as network administration and cybersecurity, is leading to larger class sizes. This stresses testbed resources and necessitates continuous design updates. To address these challenges, we designed an efficient Environment Management Platform (EMP). The EMP is composed of a set of 4 Command Line Interface scripts and a Web Interface for secure administration and bulk user operations. Based on our testing, the EMP significantly reduces setup time for student virtualized lab environments. Through a cybersecurity learning environment case study, we found that setup is completed in 15 s for each student, a 12.8-fold reduction compared to manual provisioning. When considering a class of 20 students, the EMP realizes a substantial saving of 62 min in system configuration time. Additionally, the software-based management and provisioning process ensures the accurate realization of lab environments, eliminating the errors commonly associated with manual configuration. This platform is applicable to many educational domains that rely on virtual machines for experiential learning. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a82d71a5f7d247e59d10a2b7ff1ae895 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 2078-2489 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj-art-a82d71a5f7d247e59d10a2b7ff1ae8952025-07-25T13:25:14ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892025-07-0116760410.3390/info16070604Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity EducationDavid Arnold0John Ford1Jafar Saniie2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USADepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USADepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USATestbeds are widely used in experiential learning, providing practical assessments and bridging classroom material with real-world applications. However, manually managing and provisioning student lab environments consumes significant preparation time for instructors. The growing demand for advanced technical skills, such as network administration and cybersecurity, is leading to larger class sizes. This stresses testbed resources and necessitates continuous design updates. To address these challenges, we designed an efficient Environment Management Platform (EMP). The EMP is composed of a set of 4 Command Line Interface scripts and a Web Interface for secure administration and bulk user operations. Based on our testing, the EMP significantly reduces setup time for student virtualized lab environments. Through a cybersecurity learning environment case study, we found that setup is completed in 15 s for each student, a 12.8-fold reduction compared to manual provisioning. When considering a class of 20 students, the EMP realizes a substantial saving of 62 min in system configuration time. Additionally, the software-based management and provisioning process ensures the accurate realization of lab environments, eliminating the errors commonly associated with manual configuration. This platform is applicable to many educational domains that rely on virtual machines for experiential learning.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/7/604cybersecurityeducationexperiential learningautomationtestbedcyber range |
| spellingShingle | David Arnold John Ford Jafar Saniie Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education Information cybersecurity education experiential learning automation testbed cyber range |
| title | Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education |
| title_full | Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education |
| title_fullStr | Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education |
| title_full_unstemmed | Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education |
| title_short | Architecture of an Efficient Environment Management Platform for Experiential Cybersecurity Education |
| title_sort | architecture of an efficient environment management platform for experiential cybersecurity education |
| topic | cybersecurity education experiential learning automation testbed cyber range |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/7/604 |
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