Cyberspace Odyssey: A Competitive Team-Oriented Serious Game in Computer Networking

• Published in: IEEE transactions on learning technologies Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 502 - 515
• Main Authors: Graham, Kendra, Anderson, James, Rife, Conrad, Heitmeyer, Bryce, R. Patel, Pranav, Nykl, Scott, C. Lin, Alan, D. Merkle, Laurence
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.07.2020; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Armed Forces; Communications traffic; Competition; Computer & video games; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer Games; Computer networking education; Computer Networks; Computer science; Computer Science Education; Computer security; Computer Simulation; cyber education; Cybersecurity; Educational software; Games; Information Security; Internet; Leadership Training; Learner Engagement; Military Personnel; Military Training; Outcomes of Education; Personal computers; Program Descriptions; Puzzles; Qualitative analysis; serious games; Task Analysis; Teaching Methods; Teamwork; Traffic engineering; Training; Wireless communication systems
• ISSN: 1939-1382; 1939-1382; 2372-0050
• DOI: 10.1109/TLT.2020.3008607

Cyberspace odyssey (CSO) is a novel serious game supporting computer networking education by engaging students in a race to successfully perform various cybersecurity tasks in order to collect clues and solve a puzzle in virtual near-Earth three-dimensional space. Each team interacts with the game server through a dedicated client presenting a multimodal interface, using a game controller for navigation and various desktop computer networking tools of the trade for cybersecurity tasks on the game's physical network. Specifically, teams connect to wireless access points, use packet monitors to intercept network traffic, decrypt and reverse engineer that traffic, craft well-formed and meaningful responses, and transmit those responses. Successful completion of these physical network actions to solve a sequence of increasingly complex problems is necessary to progress through the virtual story-driven adventure. Use of the networking tools reinforces networking theory and offers hands-on practical training requisite for today's cyber operators. This article presents the learning outcomes targeted by a classroom intervention based on CSO, the design and implementation of the game, a pedagogical overview of the overall intervention, and four years of quantitative and qualitative data assessing its effectiveness.