The Reusable Learning Resources (RLR) initiative was launched in 2023 by the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) at Munster Technological University (MTU). It is an award winning initiative, funded by the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement Funding in Higher Education (SATLE). Designed and developed to support the creation of high-quality, media-rich open educational resources (OER), the initiative aims to deepen relationships across disciplines, as well as creating awareness and embedding the ethics of open education across MTU (Swain and Pathak, 2024)

In the 2024/2025 cycle of the initiative the TEL team supported the Department of Computer Science in realising their vision of developing gamified cybersecurity learning through the development of Capture The Flag (CTF) challenges for cybersecurity knowledge and skill development (Ken et al, 2025). These CTF challenges, replicating real-world scenarios would then be remixed and reused to enhance traditional course delivery and support active experiential learning. In keeping with the ethos of the RLR initiative, the CTF’s would be openly licensed so they could be adapted across modules, disciplines and learner levels.

One of the aims of the gamified cybersecurity project was the inclusion of MTU students as core partners who would work with staff experienced in CTF development. The project used an agile approach for simultaneous work on different stages. Stage one included research, hardware procurement, industry partner identification and student recruitment. The second phase involved CTF challenge and scenario development and the final phase was a CTF showcase development.

This presentation reflects on the successful development of the gamified cybersecurity project including the collaboration of the TEL team with the Department of Computer Science, the recruitment of students to take part and their experience of working on the project, the challenges faced along the way and the final outputs. Finally, we will reflect on lessons learned and final dissemination of the project outputs as open educational resources.

References

Swain, B.K., & Pathak, R.K. (2024). Benefits and challenges of using OER in higher education: A pragmatic review. Discover Education, 3 (81). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44217-024-00142-6

Ken, C. L., Juremi, J., Alizadeh, S., & Sulaiman, S. (2025). Enhancing cybersecurity education through gamified learning and Capture the Flag (CTF) platform. Learning Technology for Education Challenges, 2551, 69–82. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-98003-9_6