Expert Consulting: Proof-of-concept for cross-national, virtual lecture
02. April 2021
Eight students of the bachelor’s degree program Smart Homes and Assistive Technologies (BSA) acquired digital competencies in virtual lectures. In collaboration with partner university Czech Technical University Prague (CTU), they gained experience in intercultural cooperation and communication based on the topic of web security.
The modern, international workplace requires excellent competencies, not only in working with digital means of communication, but also its productive and efficient use. The Expert Consulting concept was developed as part of the StudyATHome Internationally (Grant No. 22-07, MA23) and was embedded and tested in a lecture for the first time in winter semester 2020. The concept aims to integrate virtual interaction into courses; in doing so, students will also be offered the opportunity to collaborate and communicate in multiple languages in a cross-national environment through cooperation with international universities.
Cross-national, virtual course
As part of an in-depth course (Full Stack Web Development), the students were able to expand their knowledge of “web application security”. A virtual guest lecture by Deniz Özdemir (CTU Prague) provided an insight into this hot topic. In addition to the basic concepts of IT security, the participants also dealt with the most common security vulnerabilities and multi-level security strategies. With the help of practical examples, the students were able to deal with modern application development from a technical and analytical point of view and to learn about innovative approaches in defending against the ever-growing number of security vulnerabilities on the Internet.
How to protect web apps against security attacks
The students develop a wide variety of web applications for their bachelor theses. In the current year, the spectrum ranges from a quiz platform including eye-tracking and control, to web-based network monitoring for smart homes, to an accessible shisha web store. For their web apps, the students finally had to identify possible attack surfaces based on the most common threats as part of the course. These were presented and discussed at another virtual meeting.
Embedded in a realistic scenario, the students were thus able to expand their digital skills and take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate and communicate in English.