CyberWatch West’s “crosswalk” tool for military occupation specialties (MOS) helps two-year colleges more systematically match veterans’ military job experiences with IT and cybersecurity courses.
CyberWatch West Principal Investigator Corrinne Sande created the tool for Whatcom Community College, where the Advanced Technological Education center is based. She showed educators at the 2017 Advanced Technological Education Principal Investigators Conference how to use the free tool at their colleges.
It matches various computer-based attributes of military occupations with the topics covered in specific courses. The delineation of the course content allows for translation to other colleges’ courses. Faculty must still evaluate the match with their colleges’ courses, but that the tool provides a framework for more consistent assessments, Sande said.
Best of all it does not cost the veteran anything and fast tracks them through introductory courses.
For example, a veteran who had a cyber systems occupation title received 25 quarter credits when the responsibilities for her military job were mapped to the syllabi of Whatcom courses.
