Thank you for your positive and encouraging feedback!
You provided me feedback through multiple channels, including Peppi, comments on my homepage*, email and face-to-face. I'm considering feedback from all these channels here. Direct quotes are from comments already published by the commenter. * https://terokarvinen.com/2024/information-security-2024-spring/#comments
"[Opened] my eyes to the information security field" and "left me with a well-rounded knowledge of information security" were a common sentiment.
Numeric feedback average was 4.6 out 5, excellent. All answers were either 4 very good or 5 excellent, with the most common answer (mode) being 5 excellent.
The feeling and spirit on the course was mentioned in many comments "good feeling .. in the class"; "interaction in the class which even boost my confidence to present in big groups"; "positive feeling coming to class". I share that sentiment, I enjoyed our time together. Homework was considered interesting, and was found to be "really good for building own portfolio". Teaching style was praised in multiple comments, such as "makes complex topics easy to understand", "the free flowing and improvisational teaching style and appreciated how the class was encouraged to participate and ask questions." We did that together, as you were very active and provided insight in the class. Presentations, interaction and communication in the class was a recurring theme.
Main area to improve was to add "more hands-on tasks during class time". This had many mentions along different channels. On the other hand, one commenter noticed that doing hands-on work together takes a long time. Minor minuses mentioned were "long days", early start ("I am not a morning person") and wishes for longer course "16 weeks instead of 8 weeks".
In the future, I will keep aiming for the same interactive flow in the class (it helps if I get students like you). I'll keep similar homework, and keep making it encouranging and easy to publish your work on the Internet to build your portfolio. I'll keep studying infosec myself to keep providing fresh views. I will keep teaching free, open source actual hacker tools. I will add more hands-on exercises on class time.
To keep learning infosec,
- Come to my "ICT Infrastructure project" pro4tf023. Some of the students projects are pretty amazing, don't be scared, the makers were amazed by their own work, too. https://terokarvinen.com/2023/infra-project-2023/
- If you speak Finnish, join my other courses, too. Next up in May: Python weppipalvelu - ideasta tuotantoon ICT8TN034. Autumn: Linux palvelimet ICI003AS2A, Tunkeutumistestaus ici001as3a, Palvelinten hallinta ICI001AS3A, Sovellusten hakkerointi ja haavoittuvuudet (new course)
- Go to HelSec events https://helsec.fi/
- Join my mailing list https://terokarvinen.com/newsletter/ . I have infosec experts visiting Haaga-Helia, and they often speak in English. Next week, the creator of world-leading web fuzzer 'fuff' is coming to Pasila.
Happy hacking,
--
Tero
Tero,s Information security course opened my eyes to the information security field. It was so interesting and the way he asked to his homework created 8-7 pages webpage in no time, which was another greatest y=thing. Thank you for teaching.
— Ruwan Bandara, 2024-03-17"I highly recommend information security course! It's been incredibly useful and practical. Tero's teaching style makes complex topics easy to understand. I've gained valuable skills that I can immediately apply.
— Kiana, 2024-03-14I really enjoyed this course with Tero. It was a lot of knowledge over the course of 8 weeks and I feel the topics were appropriately picked and left me with a well-rounded knowledge of information security.
I personally would have preferred more hands-on tasks during class time throughout the course as this helps with my understanding of the theory, but I totally understood why it was heavily theory based (so as to not waste a large amount of class time installing software). There were some long days and it could sometimes be difficult to take in all of the information.
That being said, Tero is a fantastic teacher and is very open to any and all feedback provided you're willing to give it. He will happily adapt the course to whatever suits the students best, and I really appreciated this teaching style.
I feel more confident with my newfound knowledge as I look forward to getting a work experience place as part of my studies.
I did learn quite a few things during that course. For me and my pre-knowledge, which was near to 0, this course felt a little bit hurried trough and would have maybe been better, if it would had more time (16 weeks instead of 8 weeks) go it trough. At the beginning of this course, there were quite a lot of information to go trough, especially without much of a knowledge before hand.
I do liked the way these long days were made - a short pause in every hour (if possible), that did also made it a bit easier to follow. However, I would have preferred that there were more hands-on exercises practiced in the class room. So if one is having a trouble to understanding the exercise or the ways to get them done, there is a possibility to ask a teacher, and get help right a way.
It would be also good to have some what of knowledge about the programming, SQL, in order to understand the exercises in this class better. Even though the teacher is super-nice and helping with the exercises to be done to all levels.
I would definitely recommend that course.
This course by Tero was really good. I´ve learned much about the methods of hacking and the dangers of data security. We discussed many theoretical models but also did hands-on hacking like SQL injection. These skills are quite useful for private use but especially for vocational use because there are larger amounts of money to risk. The presentations we gave were nice - I liked almost every topic and it was a good way to interact in the class. The classmates and the teacher are open and gonna give comprehensive feedback on the good and bad aspects of our presentation. I enjoyed this course and had a good feeling when coming to class. Sometimes we´ve wasted time installing software or discussing homework for quite a long but in the end, it works with every user. For me, it was really good that the course was held in English because I don´t speak Finnish. The teacher´s English was also sufficient and well understandable. I would recommend this course because the effect of learning is really good, the teacher has much knowledge and is an expert on his topic and you will have great insights in Data Security. On top, you also get real software of hackers and licenses for free. Kiitos Tero for your course!
— Daniel, 2024-03-11I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot about all of the topics. Coming in I was expecting more practical and hands on exercises and not as much theory. However, after attending the classes I appreciate and understand why the class was structured so.
I liked the free flowing and improvisational teaching style and appreciated how the class was encouraged to participate and ask questions. However, I think that some more structure could be helpful sometimes to keep focus, since the classes are so long and there is a lot of information.
The student presentations were nice to see and covered a wide variety of topics, and having a small class size meant that we could all participate and communicate well.
Its hard to tell how helpful this class will be in working life, although understanding infosec is something that everyone should have some basic understanding of.
I would definitely recommend this class to fellow students; the subject matter was unique and interesting, Tero was an engaging and knowledgeable teacher, and the workload was fair and interesting.
Having no previous knowledge in the field of cybersecurity this course was totally new to me. First few classes were a bit intimidating and complicated in terms of understanding. After few lectures in the course I became very interested.
Using Linux OS was good experience. Also all the tools like Webgoat, portswigger lab etc. are really interesting tools, which I still actively use and will be using after this course.
Another best part was on submission of our homework in our GitHub pages, which is really good for building own portfolio too.
There are more interaction in the class which even boost my confidence to present in big groups.
As a very beginner in information security field, I think only improvement needed for this course would be more lab work and demonstration during the lecture beside talking and presenting
Learned about what makes the core of Cybersecurity information. Such as threat model and OWASP.
In general it was a positive feeling coming to class. One of the courses within the week I was anticipating to attend.
Most presentations were interesting. Would appreciate more on hands work added to most of them. Some of them had just enough.
Some of those skills seem useful in technology companies, others useful in general and some are more valuable within companies that operate within that field.
I learned a lot during this course. I did a lot of things for the first time, such as cracking hashes and SQL injection.
Though my favorite part of the course were the presentations and the homework. I enjoyed the subjects of the presentations and I liked making it.
The only negative thing I have to say is that the course started at 8:15am. I am not a morning person..
I will definitely recommend the course as I found it very good.