Technology-Enhanced Tabletop Exercises for Cybersecurity Education: Lessons Learned

2026-07-30

AI Summary

This study addresses the widespread lack of scalable and assessable collaborative incident response training in higher education cybersecurity curricula. To bridge this gap, the project introduces—on a large scale for the first time—the web-based INJECT Exercise Platform (IXP) into university courses, enabling technology-enhanced tabletop exercises through automated scenario delivery, real-time team discussion support, and interactive data collection. Between 2024 and 2026, 25 exercises engaged 743 students, significantly enhancing participation and collaborative capabilities while providing instructors with fine-grained learning analytics. The initiative demonstrates the replicability and efficacy of digital tabletop exercises in cybersecurity education and distills 24 evidence-based design principles, establishing an innovative pedagogical framework for future implementations.

Abstract

This innovative practice full paper examines the integration of technology-enhanced tabletop exercises (TTXs) into computing education, focusing on cybersecurity curricula. The motivation is to better prepare students for complex, collaborative problem solving typical of incident response and IT governance, where coordination, communication, and timely decision-making are essential. Although TTXs are well-established in professional practice, they remain underused in universities. We address this gap by augmenting TTX delivery and evaluation through the INJECT Exercise Platform (IXP), a web-based environment that automates scenario flow and enables data-driven assessment. Our practice implements IXP to automatically deliver scenario updates, facilitate team discussions, and collect interaction data to support automated assessment. This combination enhances realism, reduces instructor workload, and provides actionable insight into student learning. From 2024 to 2026, we ran 25 exercises with 743 participants in multiple university courses and extracurricular events. We observed increased engagement and collaboration among students, and clearer visibility for instructors into how teams navigate complex scenarios. This paper shares 24 lessons learned from these exercises. Instructors and curriculum designers may benefit from concrete guidance for integrating technology-enhanced TTXs. We demonstrate that digital TTXs provide a scalable and replicable model for cybersecurity courses and others requiring team-based problem-solving.

Problem

• tabletop exercises
• cybersecurity education
• collaborative problem solving
• incident response
• IT governance

Innovation

• technology-enhanced tabletop exercises
• INJECT Exercise Platform
• automated scenario delivery
• data-driven assessment
• cybersecurity education