Developing a new digital forensics curriculum

Abstract

We are developing a new undergraduate certificate program in digital forensics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To create a curriculum consistent with the fundamentally multidisciplinary nature of the field of digital forensics, we assembled a curriculum development team that includes domain experts from the fields of computer science, law, social science, psychology, and accounting. To lower the entry barrier preventing institutions from adopting digital forensics programs, we are designing the curriculum with the express intent of distributing it as a self-contained curriculum package with everything needed to teach the course. When complete, our program will consist of an introductory and an advanced course in digital forensics, with accompanying hands-on labs. At the time of writing, we have developed the curriculum for our introductory course and taught a pilot class, and we are in the process of revising the curriculum for distribution to other institutions. This paper describes our program's goals, methodology, and rationale; our experience developing and teaching our new curriculum; and the revisions we are making based on this experience and feedback from our students.