Investigating the effectiveness of a HyFlex cyber security training in a developing country: A case study

Abstract

HyFlex termed as hybrid-flexibility is a teaching approach where teachers and students have the alternative to participate in planned courses either remotely or face-to-face. This study examines the effectiveness of the HyFlex pedagogical method to teach highly interactive digital and face-to-face cyber security training in Nigeria amidst the pandemic. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire from 113 participants to evaluate student’s perception towards the effectiveness of the Hyflex method using physical and Zoom teleconferencing which allow students to participate remotely in the cyber security training. The developed questionnaire comprising both open-ended and Likert-style questions was administered to purposely sampled participants. Findings from this study presents implementation details on how the HyFlex teaching model was implemented from a developing country context. Besides, findings present challenges and opportunities experienced with adopting the HyFlex pedagogical model, and also offers recommendations to other instructors for employing this teaching model. Findings also reveal that although there were challenges experienced by the students who attended via online such as connectivity issues, competency in using some features in Zoom-conferencing, etc. The students did appreciate the flexibility HyFlex teaching afforded, indicating that HyFlex is a promising teaching approach for fostering engagement of students especially in large-group cyber security courses.