An Overview of Distance Learning on Information Security in Zhejiang University

Computer network has been in increasingly rapid development in recent years especially the prevalence of the Internet. The information exchange and transmission among the computers have become the inevitable trend in contemporary society. At the same time, information security also becomes the hot topic and is more significant in computer network. When the problems of information security are emerging, it is a great challenge that how to teach the knowledge and skills to the students in different disciplines, which have close relationship to information security. Distance learning is based on the application of computer network and related technologies in education field. Such teaching mode has higher efficiency compared with the traditional teaching mode. Many universities have adopted distance learning as one of the necessary solutions. In this paper, we describe the overview of distance learning on information security in Zhejiang University and share our experience in the curriculum design and construction. They described the curriculum design or the design of distance learning platform according to their backgrounds in research and the design target of the curriculum respectively. Their experiences will provide the effective references for the other universities, which have the potentials to design their own curricula for information security education. Distance learning has been proposed early (7) as a new mode of education. With its powerful advantages with the support of computer technology, distance learning offers a platform for self-directed learning. This platform needs fewer resources, saves in time and space, has instant content updating, provides more convenience and it has higher efficiency compared with the traditional mode of education. Distance learning provides rich personalization and friendly interfaces to the users. The students can carry on the study in the distributed physical places. (8 - 10) also discussed on how to construct the distance learning platform. In this paper, we describe the curriculum construction of information security in Zhejiang University. The architecture of this curriculum has been designed first and the remote learning has been taken into accounts. At the same time, a specific distance learning platform is designed and implemented for this curriculum. The design of the curriculum and the remote platform are complementary to each other.