Give your students empowering new skills with the fun and hands-on CyberStart platform!
If you’ve ever tried to teach cyber security, you’ll know it can be daunting and students often find the topic complex and uninspiring when learning from dry theory.
Not anymore!
With CyberStart, learning cyber security becomes a fun, challenging and rewarding experience for your students, with little effort required from you!
Keep reading to discover why CyberStart is the best way to teach students cyber security in 2022. Plus, gain tips from the teachers who use CyberStart year after year!
Your students could be eligible to play CyberStart for free! See how at the end of this blog.
What is CyberStart?
CyberStart is a gamified platform that makes learning cyber security fun through over 200 exciting challenges and puzzles. The platform is perfect for all abilities, as challenges start easy and become more advanced as students progress.
Discover how gamified learning is revolutionising cyber security education in our blog.
Your students will become cyber security agents, solving mysterious cyber crimes for the Cyber Protection Agency. They’ll use their problem-solving skills and creative thinking to investigate cases, unlock levels, catch criminals and earn points.
“In a short window of time I watched our students develop their creative problem-solving skills, practise perseverance and develop teamwork” - Tina, Teacher.
While developing their soft skills, students also learn practical cyber security skills such as programming, decryption, digital forensics and password cracking as they solve each challenge.
Every resource and challenge is built by industry experts, meaning your students get the most relevant, desirable skills for a cyber security career or related field.
“Thanks to the amazing experience and passion in cyber security that CyberStart has provided me with, I have recently started my first role in the industry” - CyberStart player.
All students need is a computer, an internet connection and a facilitator to start learning with CyberStart. Even students who never thought they’d enjoy cyber security have gone on to find a passion and continue playing the challenges in their own time.
“I never considered cyber security, until I learned about how fun it was to hack and protect” - CyberStart player.
No need to lesson plan or prep
As well as hundreds of challenges to explore, CyberStart has many fantastic resources to help improve your students’ learning while making it easy for you to track their progress. CyberStart’s all in one platform has everything your students require to learn cyber security, removing the need for you to lesson plan or create your own materials.
Field Manual
CyberStart’s Field Manual gives students the resources to learn about new cyber security concepts and get help with CyberStart’s challenges.
The Field Manual is full of engaging video tutorials, comprehensive guides and helpful walkthroughs that fit perfectly alongside CyberStart’s puzzles and allow students to deepen their knowledge.
Content includes web, cryptography, Linux, programming and binary. Each chapter has specific guides. For example, in the web chapter, you’ll find guides on browser development tools, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and more!
Groups
CyberStart’s Groups feature provides students with a fun leaderboard system where they can compete for top spot while seeing each other’s progress. Groups is also a tracking tool for teachers to see when students are succeeding or stuck on a challenge.
You can create your own Group and add all your students to it to track information like how many points your students gained in the last two weeks, their overall points and when they used a hint.
Learn more about how to use Groups in our blog post.
How teach cyber security with CyberStart
CyberStart’s intuitive, all-in-one platform takes the time and stress out of teaching cyber security. And with lots of fun ways to use CyberStart, you can utilise it in a way that suits your classroom.
3 top tips on using CyberStart to teach cyber security:
- Set a challenge to complete as a fun way to put the theory your students learn into practice.
- Encourage your students to study a section in the Field Manual to help them learn more about a specific cyber security topic.
- Create an exciting competition using Groups to see who can earn the most points in a given amount of time.
Here’s how some CyberStart teachers use the platform:
“I use it in my classrooms as a learning tool. I review over the Field Manual with my students. I then assign a level each week”. - Kristi, Teacher.
I gave my students the opportunity to play the CyberStart challenges whenever they finish their work early. The game-inspired learning experience pretty much sold itself!” - Jeremy, Teacher.
Hear more teacher experiences of using CyberStart in our blog post.
Get your students playing CyberStart for free!
There are several ways to get your students playing CyberStart for free.
Learn more about CyberStart’s past and current free programmes in this blog post.
If your students aren’t eligible for a free CyberStart programme they can still sign up for a free trial. A free trial to CyberStart gives students access to 12 unlocked CyberStart challenges in Intern base.
Get your students excited to learn cyber security by sharing CyberStart in your classroom today!
