Technology and Innovation Commons^™

Designing For Who Actually Shows Up: A Signal Framework For Online Adult Learners In Cybersecurity And Information Technology, Chad Whistle, Mayyada Al-Hammoshi

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Online adult learners pursuing cybersecurity and information technology credentials represent one of the fastest-growing student populations in American higher education, yet the frameworks institutions use to support their success were not designed for them. This population, disproportionately drawn from the 41.9 million Americans who hold some college credit but no credential, arrives workforce-embedded, time-constrained, and skeptical of institutional systems that previously failed to serve them. Existing persistence models grounded in traditional student integration theory inadequately account for the behavioral patterns, motivational structures, and credential expectations that define this learner. This paper proposes the SIGNAL Framework (Skills-based credential architecture, Integrated AI-informed …

Current Research On The Use Of Ai In Higher Education, Jim A. Mccleskey

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, has introduced profound opportunities and challenges for higher education. This paper presents a thematic scholarly review of recent empirical studies, systematic reviews, and conceptual analyses examining AI’s impact on teaching, learning, assessment, and institutional practice. The literature highlights substantial benefits associated with AI use, including increased academic productivity, personalized and adaptive learning pathways, enhanced accessibility for diverse learners, and new opportunities for pedagogical innovation. At the same time, significant risks emerge related to cognitive offloading, erosion of critical thinking, academic integrity, blurred authorship, assessment …

People Orientation And Thing Orientation In Business Majors: Implications For Assessing The Impacts Of Cross-Functional Business Program Curricula, Todd J. Hostager, David A. Christopher, Kristy J. Lauver, Christopher Knowles

International Journal for Business Education

Background/Introduction/Purpose:  Prior research documented significant differences in people orientation and thing orientation (PTO) based on type of major and sex.  This study examines a set of measures for helping business programs to assess whether they are producing graduates equipped to consider both people and things when making decisions, regardless of their major or sex.

Methods/Design:  Students in a strategic management capstone course spent a single 75-minute session responding to a brief new venture pitch by identifying what types of additional information they would need to decide whether to invest in the business.  Three Likert-scaled options gauged the extent to participant …

The Role Of Generative Ai In Secondary School Business Education: Insights From Teachers’ Perceptions, Leonard Busuttil, Emanuel Mizzi

International Journal for Business Education

Background/Introduction/Purpose: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has entered classrooms more quickly than the evidence base needed to guide its use, and that evidence base remains concentrated in higher education. Comparatively little is known about secondary school business education, a curricular area that brings together accounting, business studies, economics, financial literacy, marketing, and retail, and in which teachers move between subjects whose epistemological and procedural demands differ considerably. Existing studies also tend to treat business education as a single homogeneous domain, or to examine one of its subjects in isolation. This study addresses that gap by examining how secondary school business education …

Self Efficacy And Instructional Support Predict Cyber Deception Acceptance In Ics And Ot Cybersecurity, Daniel Ward

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Cyber deception can produce high-confidence evidence of unauthorized activity in industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT), but practitioners must consider the technology useful, safe, understandable, and supported before they will use it. This study reports a secondary quantitative analysis of a deidentified survey of United States-based ICS and OT professionals to determine whether psychological and instructional factors predict adoption readiness and effective utilization beyond education, experience, and sector. Hierarchical ordinary least squares regression with HC3 robust standard errors was conducted on 262 complete cases. The demographics-only model was not significant and explained 2.8 percent of outcome variance. Adding …

Personal Authenticity For Engagement And Transfer In Introductory Cybersecurity Education, Daniel T. Hickey, Ronald J. Kantor

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Abstract—This conceptual/theoretical paper explores how personal authenticity might promote generative learning in introductory cybersecurity courses. Generative learning transfers confidently to future educational, professional, personal, and testing situations. This cycle of design-based research addresses the concern that more typical professionally authentic contexts (e.g., hospitals, banks, etc.) may be alien and overwhelming to many students, particularly those in introductory courses and/or from non-professional families and communities. If so, this leads to “inert” knowledge that does not transfer. Personal authenticity is rooted in expansive framing, a modern theory of learning transfer. We reframe expansive framing as personal authenticity to make it …

From Disruption To Replacement: The 2026 Cae Cybersecurity Community Symposium And The Emerging Federal-Academic Compact For An Ai Workforce, Sunday Oludare Ogunlana

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The cybersecurity workforce gap in the United States is estimated at several hundred thousand unfilled positions, and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into adversary tradecraft and federal cyber operations is widening that gap qualitatively as well as quantitatively, threatening national security and the operational readiness of graduates entering the field. This perspective article synthesizes the principal arguments advanced by five federal and academic speakers at the 2026 CAE Cybersecurity Community Symposium, using verbatim session transcripts, a structured thematic extraction process, and triangulation against published workforce policy and peer-reviewed literature. Findings document a unified speaker thesis that artificial intelligence now …

Strategic Information System Leadership And Information System Function Performance In Universities In Kenya: A Pls-Sem Analysis, Joseph K. Muchina, James M. Njihia Prof., Agnes N. Wausi Prof.

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Information systems as enablers have evolved from an efficiency and effectiveness focus to enterprise-wide performance, placing strong demands on information system leadership. Emerging leadership models call for collaborative practices. Information systems leadership in higher education is a challenging task. Universities' top management team members and their information system executive counterparts lack a common and shared vision and understanding of information systems capabilities and roles. As the highest-ranking officers in organizations, they make strategic IS decisions. Yet, noting that existing approaches are ineffective, there is a growing concern about the kind of leadership needed to guide the institutions. Four sets of …

Closing The Awareness–Behavior Gap: A Role-Based Phishing Training Framework For Higher Education, Ranylene O. Olaybal, Ryan A. Olaybal

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Phishing remains one of the most persistent cybersecurity threats facing higher education institutions, where diverse user populations and highly connected digital environments increase exposure to social engineering attacks. Although cybersecurity awareness initiatives are widely implemented, high awareness does not always translate into secure behavior. This study examined phishing awareness, phishing-related practices, phishing susceptibility, and phishing experiences among college students, teaching faculty, and administrative staff in a private higher education institution in the Philippines. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected from 553 respondents through a validated survey instrument and analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey's honestly …

How Does An Advanced Educator Utilize Digital Language Teaching And Learning By Integrating Linguistic, Cultural, And Business Life Perspectives?, Hely Westerholm, Pirjo Takanen-Körperich, Ph.D.

International Journal for Business Education

This paper explores advanced educators’ digital working capabilities in online language teaching, with a particular focus on sharing Finnish language and culture in a foreign context. Cultural and linguistic knowledge play a significant role in enhancing students’ motivation to study foreign languages. In today’s educational environment, digitalisation and globalisation exert an increasing influence on foreign language teaching and learning.

The digital learning environment has brought about a paradigm shift in foreign language didactics. Digital language learning is both challenging and holistic in nature. Continued foreign language learning is simultaneously an individual and a social process, as digital learning cultures impose …

How Grades Changed Before, During And After Covid-19 In A Business College, Douglas R. Moodie, Alison Keefe, Robin Cheramie

International Journal for Business Education

Purpose: This study examines how undergraduate business student grades changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic using a large institutional dataset from a business college in a US university between 2015 and 2024.

Method: The analysis includes over 390,000 student-course observations and incorporates instructional modality, student demographics, course characteristics, and prior academic performance.

Results: Results show a substantial increase in mean course grades during the COVID-19 period, followed by a partial reversion post-pandemic to levels that remain above pre-pandemic trends. These patterns are consistent across modalities, demographics, and departments.

Implications: The findings raise important questions regarding the interpretation of …

Governing Algorithmic Attention: Attention Safeguard Models And The Cognitive Attentional Standard As System Level Interventions In Human Computer Interaction, Behavioral Economics, And Artificial Intelligence, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Algorithmic recommendation systems and interface designs shape attention by combining visually salient cues with uncertain reward timing and low friction interaction. These conditions can sustain anticipatory checking, extend time on task, and reduce natural disengagement points through patterns such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. This paper synthesizes research across neuroscience, human computer interaction, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence to argue that attention capture is a predictable outcome of incentive driven design rather than an individual failure of self regulation. It advances the Attention Safeguard Models and the Cognitive Attentional Standard as system level interventions that regulate exposure conditions, pacing, and …

Innovation Hubs In Mountain West Cities, 2025, Cason Noll, Sean Curry, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents data on 20 innovation-dense Mountain West cities across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The CommercialCafe report, “Santa Clara, Berkeley & Tempe Lead Among Western Innovation Hubs,”  uses 15 indicators to rank 63 western cities for innovation hub activity across three categories: employment and talent, education, and business activity.

Ms110 Syllabus: Introduction To Computers, Information Systems, And Artificial Intelligence, Wei Zhang

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

This is a syllabus for Professor Wei Zhang's MS110: Introduction to Computers, Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence Course within UMass Boston's College of Management. This is an Open Educational Resource and can be remixed, copied, redistributed, altered and reused as long as permission is given to the original creator.

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

The Efficacy Of Emotional Reframing As An Intervention To Promote Adult Transformational Growth, Linda Rossetti

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates the underexplored relationship between adult developmental growth and emotions. Developmental growth requires an individual to respond to self-concept instability by adopting new meaning structures and navigating oppositional emotions. This quantitative study examined the relationship between an emotional reframing intervention and perspective shifts, an indicator of developmental progression. Data collected on three college campuses in the 2024-2025 academic year revealed a strong positive relationship between the intervention and perspective shifts, as evidenced by differences in pre- and post-assessment responses within the studied population, both in aggregate and in specific use cases. The findings contribute to three academic arenas: …

It’S No Longer Greek To Me: A Gamified Parsing Study Tool, Josiah J. Lane

Senior Honors Theses

Learning Koine Greek presents significant challenges due to the language’s complex morphology, including multiple verbal forms encoding tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, and number. Traditional methods relying on rote memorization often fail to support long-term retention and rapid parsing ability. This project presents a web-based parsing study tool designed to address these challenges by integrating spaced repetition algorithms, active recall, and gamification principles. The system leverages a relational database of lexical forms and parsed words, enabling adaptive scheduling of practice items based on individual learner performance. Gamified elements, including scoring, progress tracking, and immediate feedback, sustain engagement and encourage consistent …

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through Xr And Ai, Christopher Spitzer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through XR and AI explores the history of creativity and computing technology, supported by research and academic literature, and looks at the possibilities of a convergence between the two. In parallel, a brief biographical story of the author shares how a passion for creativity emerged, along with a growing interest in science and technology—specifically extended reality—which ultimately came together in the creation of this master’s project. The project also highlights how the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process was used alongside AI bots and twenty research-based creative thinking skills in developing the business model canvas. Finally, the outcome …

Factors That Affect African American Representation In Cybersecurity Academic Programs In The United States, Damon Walker

Dissertations

The U.S. cybersecurity workforce continues to experience a critical talent shortage alongside persistent inequities in racial representation, particularly at the faculty level within higher education. This mixed-methods dissertation examines African American representation among faculty in cybersecurity academic programs designated by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) and investigates the factors that influence recruitment, retention, and advancement. Grounded in a transformative research framework, the study integrates quantitative analysis of national institutional data with qualitative interviews to illuminate structural patterns and lived experiences shaping representation.

Quantitative findings revealed pronounced underrepresentation: African American faculty comprise 2.57% (130 of 5,051) of …

Generational Perception Differences Among Faculty Regarding Smartphones And Tablets In The College Classroom, Ronda G. Henderson

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Columnas: The Honors Program Newsletter At Bentley University, Amanda Li, Wilson Jan, Michael Raphael, Alexandra Rieckehoff, Karina Wu, Michael Shehata, Nilufar Noorian, Eloise Weintraub

Honors Program

INSIDE THE MODERN WORLD

Page 2: Stepping Out by Amanda Li

Page 3: Inside the Corporate Slop Bowl by Wilson Jan

Page 4: The Silencing: An Evaluation of the Global Attacks on the Right to Protest by Michael Raphael

THE SOUND OF CHANGE

Page 5: The Social, Cultural, and Economic Impact of Bad Bunny by Alexandra Rieckehoff

Page 6: Streaming Changed Music, But Is It Fair to Artists? by Karina Wu

Page 7: Feeling the Music: How Haptic Wearables Are Changing the Way We Experience Sound by Michael Shehata

SHIFTING SYSTEMS

Page 8: The Story Behind Davos, One of the …

Language Analysis Of "Gaslight" And "Narcissist" As Seen On Tiktok, Aaren Fernandez

Journal of Research Initiatives

TikTok is a popular social media platform from which users frequently obtain information. Specifically, psychological concepts such as anxiety, depression, and related conditions are becoming popular vernacular on TikTok through trends such as "story times." However, the accuracy of these terms' usage requires examination. In this qualitative analysis of TikTok posts and comments under the hashtags #gaslight and #narcissist, it was found that videos under these hashtags often originated from users attempting to warn viewers about psychological traits that align with common diagnostic language. However, comments under these videos tended to use these terms in a more casual sense than …

Cybersecurity In Higher Education Institutions: Awareness, Policy, And Experience On Employee Behaviour, Abdullahi Abiodun Yusuf, Adriana A. Steyn

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The digital transformation of higher education institutions (HEIs) has introduced unprecedented connectivity and operational efficiency, but it has also heightened their exposure to cyber threats. South African HEIs, in particular, face increasing vulnerability due to their reliance on technology, openness, and diverse user communities. This study examines the influence of the institutional cybersecurity environment on employee cybersecurity-compliant behaviour (CCB), emphasising the critical roles of awareness, policy engagement, and experience. Drawing on Protection Motivation Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a conceptual model was developed to explore how cybersecurity awareness, policy familiarity, and prior experience shape employees’ attitudes, subjective norms, …

Cyber Science Education Meets Healthcare Technology, Angela Spencer

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The research investigates how cyber science education combines with healthcare technology during the digital age to resolve a fundamental research gap in these two advancing areas. A combined approach utilizing extensive surveys and detailed interviews evaluates the functionality of learning platforms as well as cybersecurity measures and potential uses of emerging virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools to improve both educational and clinical environments. The research document describes its methodologies thoroughly while. The research documents multiple quantitative and qualitative results before performing its analysis, which leads to strategy development for digit. The researchers worked to find ways that …

Business Schools In The Internal Environment: What Should Schools Do Now?, Kai Peters, Howard Thomas, Michael Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In our previous article, we set out to explore external factors (Brexit, the pandemic, technological change and nationalism) which have made life more difficult for business schools. In this follow-up, we explore challenges of our own making within business schools, especially those that are a part of a larger university. We posit that many of us are not financially savvy, running too many under-scaled and poorly costed programmes. We see extensive university centralisation and related risk aversion. We see schools scheduling programmes for their own preference, not the preference of students. In conclusion, we propose some ways forward.

Integrating Adversarial Scenarios Into Llm Security Labs: An Experience Report On A Hands-On Approach, Dominic A. Wilson

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

This paper presents an exploratory case study detailed as a pedagogical experience report on integrating adversarial Large Language Model (LLM) scenarios into a graduate cybersecurity curriculum. In addition to prompt injection, sophisticated techniques such as jailbreaking and model inversion pose emerging threats that traditional computer security curricula often lack. We present the design and implementation of a structured, hands-on module addressing this gap, utilizing a custom Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) platform with local open-source LLMs. A cohort of 16 graduate students participated in this two-week pilot module, engaging in "red team" activities to actively exploit model alignment and privacy vulnerabilities. The …

Peace Innovation And Healing: A Design Justice Framework To Support Change Processes, Strengthen Relationships, Foster Trust, And Build Community, Michelle Helman

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

Many organizations aiming to achieve peace and health equity outcomes often focus their design processes and innovation efforts externally without addressing how their organizational culture can unintentionally reproduce the very harms they are trying to address. The purpose of this qualitative design research study is to explore the role of a design justice framework in piloting a Peace Innovation Project aimed at facilitating an organizational culture change process. Specifically, the study focuses on better understanding how integrating a design justice approach could support research collaborators to center equity and justice as core components in building a culture of peace and …

Embodying Design Justice: A Peace Education Framework To Strengthen Relationships, Foster Trust And Build Community, Michelle Helman

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

BACKGROUND

Groups working toward creating peace and equity often focus on external innovation without addressing internal culture shifts necessary to navigate change and achieve their goals. Michelle’s doctoral research and practice address this challenge through a design research study and peace innovation project focused on organizational culture transformation through a design justice framework. Findings suggest that interweaving the framework with storytelling, arts, and embodiment practices are key to support people in navigating change processes to strengthen relationships, foster trust, and build community.

ABOUT

The workshop offers an applied learning experience for participants to explore the concepts of design and innovation …

Becoming Art Itself: A Study On The Generative Logic And Discursive Structure Of Disability Art Incubation Institutions, Gonghui Lu

MA Theses

This study employs “Becoming” as its core analytical concept to examine how disability art incubation institutions operate at the intersection of contemporary art history and social systems as mechanisms that continuously generate both art and subjectivity. Building on Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming and Guattari’s notion of the rhizome, the study constructs a generative model linking art, institutions, and discourse. Through comparative analysis of international cases, it discusses the shift in disability art from a representational logic to a generative logic, and the dynamic oscillation between deterritorialization and reterritorialization within institutional practices. The study argues that disability art should not be …

Governing Generative Ai In Higher Education: A Global Delphi Study On Policy And Practice, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke, Christine Nickel, Aras Bozkurt, Fengchun Miao, Mike Sharples, Jeffrey Alan Greene, David Parsons, Lucy Gill-Simmen, Adam Edmett, Mark Pegrum, Inge De Waard, Curtis J. Bonk, Manuel B. Garcia, John H. Curry, Leeann Lindsey, Mohan Yang, Stephen Marshall, Maha Bali, Nellie Deutsch, Suzaan Le Roux, Mourad Benali, Mohd Ali Bin Samsudin, Hasan Tinmaz, Matthew L. Bernacki, Mari Van Wyk, Lenandlar Singh, Agnes Chigona, Lance Eaton, Junhong Xiao, Johanna Velander, Jinhee Kim, Francisco Bellas, R. Rajalakshmi, Andréia De Bem Machado, Agnieszka Palalas, Sean Yu

STEMPS Faculty Publications

As GenAI technologies become more pervasive in higher education (HE), scholars call for guidance on AI governance. To meet this need, a Delphi technique and collective writing was used in gathering expert perspectives from across 22 countries/locations and six continents. This resulted in the development of a HE GenAI policy/guidelines framework with eight core areas: (1) academic integrity, (2) ethical use and responsible use, (3) privacy and protection, (4) equitable access, (5) GenAI literacy, (6) integration strategy, (7) human oversight and accountability, and (8) institutional support and infrastructure. In addition, a six-part framework was developed to ensure that policies remain …