CONDUCTING AN INTERNET MEASUREMENT PROJECT IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CLASS CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY

This paper describes a project that was conducted at a large interdisciplinary college in a Fundamentals of Information Security class. Motivated by the prevalence of behavioural tracking on the Internet, we designed this project for students to garner a better understanding of the related technical issues and policy considerations. The main component of the project was a small-scale Internet measurement study, which was conducted in teams. The learning objectives aimed to foster students' technical abilities, data analytic skills, and their critical thinking. Students developed their technical skills by collecting data with a state-of-the-art measurement tool and their analytic skills by analysing the data and creating effective visualizations. Students engaged in critical thinking exercises through readings and the writing of a reflective essay at the conclusion of the project. This paper discusses the effectiveness of this project in meeting its learning objectives and outlines potential modifications to better serve these objectives. With our contribution, we want to spark a discussion about best practices for conducting comparatively complex measurement projects in interdisciplinary class contexts.