IDS 493 was a great course that helps a student determine what academic experiences they have had and how each course contributed towards being ready for the career that is wanted. I am no exception to this as IDS 493 and interdisciplinary studies have helped open my eyes to observe what I have benefitted from to better myself and move towards my career goals.
Some of the most valuable skills that I take from this is the hands-on skills with knowing the fundamentals of operating systems, using the tools required for fields such as digital forensics, and the research/critical thinking skills needed from both cyber law and cybersecurity ethics. Each of these skills provides the foundation that I will build on to hone my own toolkit to perfection.
ODU has brought a lot to me and I am thankful for it as not many colleges could provide such a program online, and this opened my doors to the career I would like to follow.
Program Reflection
The Cybersecurity program at ODU was very helpful in jump starting my goal of obtaining a B.S. in Cybersecurity and following my passion for security, in general. Being in the U.S. Navy it was hard enough to be “in-person” at a university with constantly moving and being deployed, but ODU granted me the access and availability to follow this path without issues.
The program itself was amazing as it gave many fundamental tools and held a very structured set of classes to take that either gave new skills, or improved on the skills that I already had. Every professor was more than gracious enough to consider the asynchronous schedules the students had and assisted where they could so that each student was successful in their own ways. This was probably my most valuable learning experience as it developed my organizational and time management skills in accordance with the program materials and what was required to pass each course.
However, even with developing my organization and time prioritization, there were still some obstacles in my way because I held a full time job and had other responsibilities to tend to. Punctuality for deliverables was detrimental to make good grades, and to overcome this, I had to bite the bullet and gain some humility in myself to ask for assistance from the professors as well. Communication is always key so that help can be given if it is necessary, because if you are drowning and do not say anything, you will continue to drown.
As my college career developed as well, it was easy to see that many classes were kind of tied to each other, which helped to complete the program. Cyber law, cyber warfare, and cyber ethics all had interconnected ideas and discussions that provided a connection between each course. Fundamentals of Linux had ties to digital forensics and even networked systems security as virtual machine’s and similar operating systems were used together, so that made it easier for these courses to complete as practice made for perfection when using the tools in each class. As one piece was used to fulfill a requirement, that piece followed me onto the next course to use at my disposal and aid in the completion of the program.
IDS 493 Reflection
IDS 493 as a course helps students develop a portfolio to determine what skills and experiences were made when taking them. This helps support the importance of what we do as students because it allows us to create a portfolio to display what we have learned and what we have made.
The most interesting concept is bringing to light that each class is interconnected in various aspect and they do not necessarily have to relate or be in the same field. Ethics are not typically seen as a field that is technologically savvy, however, it can be used to determine whether choices made in the industry are of moral principles or ethically sound. Damaging society through unethical choices can happen in every field, and it is something that is needed within cybersecurity, even though it would feel as though both do not correlate completely. Each class that is taken as an extracurricular that may seem to be “out-of-scope” should be looked at as a tool to help research practices and critical thinking, especially when it comes to careers that can affect more than just one person.
With this portfolio, I think I am most proud of the design and did it really well. I wanted to set it apart from others, however, I did use a provided theme from WordPress. My previous ePortfolio design seemed too standard and boring, so I wanted to touch it up with more pictures and design it so that the space was not empty with just words. Overall, I feel I did make it more inviting and interesting as the pictures provide a layer of intrigue into what they are about to read. It was challenging though with learning the site and becoming accustomed to finding the widgets and how to design them. This was easily resolved by watching some tutorials and just looking into the site and testing out different plugins and buttons. It showed that WordPress was user friendly and easy to navigate.
If I had more time, I would probably be able to clean up my blog posts a bit more with different images and allowing for it to be more accessible. I feel like the blog posts are important as they highlight some important articles and events when I first started the cyber program. Having the initial use of WordPress from previous courses allowed for me to be ready to complete this course, making sure I was not a stranger to the ePortfolio and how I would like to design it. The latest posts tab was some of my earliest works that helped as I was knew to the ePortfolio requirement and what needed to be done for the program.
Future Plans
Interdisciplinary methods and theories are very important with the coursework that was taken. Each held their own ideas and practices, but they also had a shared connection between each other. This allowed for me to develop a better sense of critical thinking, skills within organization, improving effective communication and research, and overall allowing for my mindset to be diverse when thinking about other fields and how they can interact with the field I am pursuing.
It is always important to be an interdisciplinary thinker in any field of study because every field (especially with cybersecurity in the modern era) interacts with each other at all times, even if it does not seem like it. Finances are always taken into account when viewing what resources are needed, ethical choices need to be made to determine who and what is affected, and the cyber world will help digitalize components that effect industries across the globe. If you do not take a chance to be an interdisciplinary thinker, you shut doors to many industries that require answers from different perspectives.
With my college career coming to an end at ODU, I am once again applying to the U.S. Navy to hopefully use my Cybersecurity skills that I have developed and serve as an Officer.