Here at the Living Lab, we are dedicated to both the development of the students and the development of education itself. Living Lab staff members, faculty, and partners frequently conduct research to further the development of technology and technology curriculum. The list below contains the title of various research papers written by those involved with the lab. You can click on any title to view the full paper. Thank you for taking the time to view research being conducted by the lab.

Building Tomorrow’s Information Assurance Workforce through Experiential Learning

Written By: Connie Justice and David Dellacca

The Department of Computer and Information Technology (CIT) at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has built a comprehensive and experience-based learning environment. Students coming to the department seeking knowledge and skills in the areas of networking and security are exposed to traditional learning methodologies focusing on terms, conceptsand history of the subject matter. In addition to this, students gain practical knowledge and capture experience-based lessons in the field of networking and security. Through class work and outside projects students are given opportunities to gain valuable and relevant hands-on experience designing, implementing, and managing live network environments for the department, other on-campus groups, and ultimately for groups outside of the university. This experience-based teaching methodology not only addresses the challenges of preparing future technologists in an ever-changing field, but also arms students with the experience that many employers are seeking. This article discusses the growth, benefits, challenges, and future goals of the networking and security tracks of classes offered at IUPUI in the CIT Department.

IT Experiential Learning: The Living Lab

Written By: Connie Justice and Liem Do

In today’s competitive job market, businesses will hire people with the relevant work experience, which creates quite a challenge for graduating students. Thus, graduating students also need experience to go with their degrees in order to be competitive in current job market. To better prepare our students, the Computer Information Technology program developed an experiential learning program called the “Living Lab”. The Living Lab provides real world experience in all aspects of information technology to students by assigning various projects in a real work environment. This allows students to apply their classroom learning and develop the skills and experience needed to prepare them for today’s competitive job market, which is the mission of the Living Lab. Just like the name, the Living Lab experiences remain ever evolving and complicated; thus, finding ways to effectively assess learning persists as a challenge. In this paper, we will show how the Living Lab evolved and the organization, management, and assessment tools used in order to provide students the best experience to assist in their obtaining jobs. Further discussions will show our findings and the innovative ways the lab evolved to take into account the blending of processes, business practices, and academic rigor.