Enhancing students motivation and academic results through international cybersecurity competitions

Resumen

After implementing the principles of the European Higher Education Area, the evaluation of student learning must be supported by three basic elements: initial evaluation, participatory evaluation, and summative evaluation. However, as stated in the Bologna declaration, the main component of the evaluation of student learning in higher education should be the participatory evaluation and, unfortunately, it is most neglected or misunderstood component. Actually, participatory evaluation faces several open challenges. On the one hand, most subjects should be organized to follow a competence-based scheme and approach. On the other hand, student must attend in-person sessions regularly to monitor their progress and daily work. But even in innovative approaches, the motivation of students to attend and participate in activities reduces linearly as time passes. To address this situation and enable a good quality participatory evaluation, a pilot experience was planned and carried out at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. As a proposal, during the second term of the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22, we have organized an international cybersecurity competition. The competition was based on a collection of challenges to be solved with an original and creative proposal by a group of students. For each competence in the program, at least two challenges were posed. The solutions were presented in person and validated by professors and other students. The results confirmed that this approach enables a better participatory evaluation. Student participation and attendance rates increased significantly and academic results also improved. The level of competence acquisition was also higher, as well as the motivation of the students.