Designing and Implementing Awareness Programs

This unit guides students through designing, deploying, and measuring practical security awareness programs that change behavior. Learners will apply tactics such as gamification and phishing simulations, produce executive reporting, and iterate programs based on metrics and ROI to prepare for advanced continuous-improvement work.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze security awareness metrics and behavior-change data to determine which measures to collect, when to collect them, and how to interpret improvements in user behavior
• Design a quarterly delivery strategy and program plan that integrates gamification, topical content (e.g., password and home-network security), promotion, and decisions about including phishing simulations
• Implement and run a basic phishing simulation and associated gamification activities, including selecting tools, configuring campaigns, executing tests, and producing post-campaign reports
• Evaluate program effectiveness and tangible/intangible ROI by creating executive-level reports, recommending program redesigns, and applying group-psychology and mental-model interventions to improve outcomes