The Cybersecurity program got me to do a lot of thinking on things that I never would’ve thought I’d be thinking about. A lot of laws regarding cybersecurity were shown to me and I had no idea they existed because of how in the dark I was about the entire program as a whole. Learning about machine language, how to set up servers, making my own coded programs, and learning about laws has given me an insight that this is a very important program to get myself into. The skills that I learned from these courses included getting a lot better with communication via public speaking classes, which has definitely helped with giving speeches if needed, it has also taught me how to keep myself organized, especially with my computer files throughout most of my coding and server making classes. It also taught me to balance my workloads, such as schoolwork, my job, and how I spend my spare time. 

The most valuable learning experiences I got were to definitely balance my work and free time because it can definitely take a toll on me in the long run because if I have a lot to do, it can hurt my time since I work during the weekends. I also learned to make sure to save my work because if I were to go too long without it, I could lose a lot of data. I also learned to try and manage what work gets done when because if I try to span it out differently, it can get me stuck based on what homework I need to complete.

An obstacle I’ve encountered is being completely stumped from not being able to find the information I need to write papers, especially through Google Scholar. The way that I would overcome this issue would be to look strictly for pdf websites because I know I’d be able to find some sort of information on it instead of certain sites that would ask for data. Another obstacle I’ve encountered was not being able to get past certain obstacles because I didn’t know what to do and the way that I was able to overcome it was to check my textbook further into it to see if I could find anything on my problem or I would check google. 

Previous courses have helped me by allowing me to conduct extensive research with my Interdisciplinary Theory and Concepts class because it required me to perform extensive research that required me to look about how I should or could solve a specific problem. I also used my previous classes that required me to use Linux to help me get through classes such as Linux System Administration, which helped me work my way through later classes that used Linux to get through certain assignments. I also learned how to perform certain cybersecurity tasks through my Crime and Computer applications class because of the kinds of stuff that I’ll be doing in the future, such as steganography.

 The class in a nutshell helps you set up a portfolio for yourself in a way that can make things easy to read for both you and your audience. The most valuable concepts I learned were my skills and how to properly set up a resume because it can help me in the future if I need to update my resume. I think I did particularly well on my Introduction to Networking and Security class because I was able to include my work that showed how I can set up networks. The aspect that was challenging to me in this class was finding out what classes to use for designing pages because of the constant changes between Blackboard and Canvas, I was losing a lot of my classes to base my work on because of the switches which made it harder to find out which ones to used and I was able to get by it by checking what classes I had that were part of my curriculum in my files and on ODU’s website. I think if I had more time, I could maybe improve my resume and I could add more classes to my portfolio. Previous courses required me to look through all of my data to find out what I needed, especially with my Cybersecurity, Tech, and Society class because it required me to put my thinking cap on and think about what I should type about with my pages. 

The methods and theories were important to my coursework because I had to use my skills from my interdisciplinary class to solve what problems I would have throughout making all of the pages and my resume, trying to remember what work I did and how I did in my life during the classes and schooling. It’s important to have interdisciplinary thinking because a lot of the situations that I could get into with cybersecurity would require me to have to take time to figure out where the origin of a problem is and how it can be fixed and kept safe so that it doesn’t happen again. My next steps after ODU will be to look for internships so that I can gain experience in the field and possibly work my way up into the government to keep it protected.