This story of one instructor’s cybersecurity learning journey has inspired the team at Project Ares. At his request for anonymity, we’ve changed the name of our protagonist to Professor X. We think you’ll find his story impactful. Maybe it will help other cyber instructors tap into why they teach in this fascinatingly complex field.

“Stop thinking like an instructor. Remember what it was like when you were a student and didn’t know how to do things. Think about what would have intimidated you. If you can’t get on that same thought level and remember what it was like when you struggled, you’re not going to be able to help someone else through a struggle. They say that you cannot help someone up a mountain unless you have first climbed it yourself first.”

~ Professor X

The Situation

In the past, Professor X was an oil and gas electrical technician, but also a lifelong learner. He wanted to learn more about cybersecurity. Even with his technical prowess and mechanical aptitude, he knew that building cybersecurity skills wouldn’t be a walk in the park. He signed up for a Network+ course and started learning with a “full speed ahead” attitude knowing that he could leverage his love of puzzles, solving problems, and enthusiasm for code. In his Network+ course, he spent at least 40 hours a week digging into the hands-on labs in Project Ares determined to turn the unfamiliar into something familiar and understood.

Why was he so committed?

Professor X had been a victim of identity theft and had a strong desire to learn how it happened and how it could be prevented from happening again. Channeling an incredible passion for learning and a natural aptitude for technology, he took his cyber identity (and subsequently his career) into his own hands.

The Solution

Professor X aspired to become a teacher in some way – it was a goal on his 15-year plan – because it would allow him to help people in a very real and specific way. When he experienced the power of hands-on learning through Project Ares labs in his Network+ course, he knew was onto something that might enable him to help other cybersecurity students sometime in the future.

The teaching staff of that first Network+ course quickly realized how committed the future Professor X was to learning cybersecurity and helping others. At the end of the course, they invited him to join their teaching team. Today, Professor X is in the front of the classroom (or the Zoom screen). He helps students with feedback on assignments and projects, assists with question sessions during live classes, provides 1:1 support to students when needed, helps with course material updates, and creates new materials.

Sharing the Cyber Learning Experience

“I love helping people more than anything,” says Professor X. “And teaching cybersecurity lets me help people in a way that might reduce identity theft and close that cyber skills gap we read about every day.”

In Professor X’s classes, students thrive on the help he provides to introduce them to Project Ares and the explain the nuances of the platform. He guides them to think about learning skills in a new way – even if it seems overwhelming at first.To help some students overcome anxiety, Professor X empathizes a great deal and shares his own experiences of diving into the labs for the first time. Often times students don’t know where to start, so he shares how he approached a similar situation and that encourages his students over that first learning hurdle.

“Project Ares Battle Room 1 took me almost a month to finish because I didn’t use hints,” he says somewhat ruefully. “I went in and just crashed everything. But I learned! I would pick a topic for the day and read about it. I’ve probably read the Snort manual a million times. And eventually I put it all together, finished the lab, and progressed to the next one.”

Professor X’s Friendly Advice

To other students

“If you take the time to put in the effort, you will soon be able to do many amazing things because of the amount of knowledge you get from Project Ares labs.“

To fellow educators looking to adopt hands-on labs in the classroom

“For a minute, stop thinking like an instructor…and remember the times when you were a student learning something new and the pains it took to get real knowledge. Use those experiences to relate to your student’s challenges to help them understand the value of using real cyber tools in virtual environments. You can’t help someone up a mountain if you haven’t climbed it yourself.“

The Project Ares team is inspired by Professor X because of his unique experiences being on “both sides” as a cyber learner and cyber teacher. His story shows how the student experience helped him define who he is as an instructor. His passion for teaching is contagious and we’re honored that he is helping the next generation of cyber professionals use Project Ares to build the skills they need to not only enter the cyber workforce but to thrive in it.

Project Ares is an award-winning EdTech platform that provides hands-on cybersecurity labs that enhance competency-based education for teachers and reinforce readiness objectives for trainers. Its library of threat scenarios is immersive and reflects contemporary threat incidents. Learners have the ability to use real security tools, tactics, and procedures in Project Ares to effectively perform offensive and defensive activities to build cyber skills and competencies. For more information, visit https://projectares.academy.

Is there a wrong way to “do the gym”?

It’s probably not something we gym rats spend much time thinking about. (After all, we’ve got a lot to do between patting ourselves on the back for being there in the first place and squeezing our money’s worth out of that heaven-sent sauna.)

But even after deciding on a training program to follow, building out a schedule, and carefully selecting equipment, your trainees might still find themselves sitting on the leg press late one evening wondering, “Am I doing this right?”

The good news is that self-doubt can usually be resolved by addressing the root of the problem. Once you help a trainee identify that, the steps they can take to feel like a rockstar in the cyber gym again will become much clearer.

So what are those root problems? In our experience, every uncertainty encountered in the Project Ares gym can be boiled down to one of six basic mistakes:

1. Not planning ahead of time
2. Skipping the warm-up
3. Doing too many things at once
4. Not “switching it up”
5. Not taking breaks
6. Not tracking progress

But we in the Project Ares gym are solution-minded, so today, we’re going to look at how these mistakes happen and what you can do to reframe them to get the most out of your students’ training.

1. Plan Ahead of Time

Think like Hollywood. Before Daniel Craig ever walked onto a set, someone had already thought through how he would be successful. Alongside the script, they’d have organized camera angles, types of lenses, zoom levels, where the B-roll would fill, how the scenes would be edited together, and on and on ad infinitum – all before cameras rolled and James Bond fluttered his sultry eyelashes at his femme fatale du jour.

In Hollywood, that person is the Director. In radio, it’s the Producer. In sports, it’s the Offensive Coach.

In the Project Ares gym, it’s YOU, the Trainer.

In the last article of this series (👇😉), we talked about the importance of creating a schedule and how to make one that you and your students can stick with.

But a schedule isn’t the only part of planning ahead. Other questions you and your students can ask yourselves include:

• Is my computer equipped for success? (Click 👉 here  👈 to test your network!)
• Do I understand all the prerequisite material that will make me and my students successful?

Check Out Our Cyber Curriculum Guide!

Take me there!

• Am I in the right state of mind to focus and learn?

That last question is one that’s easily overlooked but is critically important for success, so let’s dive a little deeper into that.

2. Warm Up

While the Project Ares cyber gym may not require jumping jacks and hamstring stretches before a “workout”, it has its own collection of warm-ups that are equally important for the mind.

It’s hard to get any kind of good training in if the trainee is hungry, stressed, distracted, or otherwise not fully focused on the task at hand. But assuming their environment and health are conducive to productivity, the next warm-up box to tick is the scenario pre-requisites.

Your students aren’t likely to complete a 5K if they’re unable to run a mile, so be sure to check out what knowledge they’ll need before attempting to train on the “machine” you’ve chosen for them. (Psst, you can see the pre-requisites for each scenario in our Cyber Curriculum Guide under the “What you should know prior” section.)

Other important warm-ups in the Project Ares gym that specifically relate to the Specialized Mission Scenarios include the Mission video and References in the Mission wheel. At the beginning of each Specialized Scenario, the trainee will be presented with the situational storyline for their real-world scenario simulation.

Understanding the characters and what’s at stake will provide context for the Objectives that your students will need to accomplish. This is key because it helps ground and rationalize the tasks for a student so they aren’t just moving from task to task without an understanding of WHY they’re doing it.

And finally, the References area within the scenario itself provides external links to study materials that will help students feel fully equipped to accomplish their mission.

By helping students get equipped with the right environment, mindset, context, and tools before beginning the “workout”, lots of potential issues can be avoided. 💪 Productivity for the win!

3. Set a “Workout” Goal

Huge goals like successfully completing a Specialized Scenario without any hints can seem impossible to the beginner cyber ninja, and often that “impossible” goal can be enough to derail even the most motivated of students.

The best way to avoid this mistake is to set a tangible goal for every single “workout”.

Let’s imagine that the beginner student has been assigned a Foundational Scenario with 52 Objectives to be completed within a week. Some students might attempt to study outside of the scenario, then doggedly work their way through the entire scenario in one evening.

Other students, however, might divide those 52 Objectives into bite-sized chunks, completing 8 or 9 Objectives every day.

RELATED: Real World Cybersecurity Experience: From Learning to Earning

Neither approach is right or wrong, but we’d bet our ninja masks that those who set their goal of completing 8 or 9 Objectives per day have the highest likelihood of not only completing their assignment but also remembering what they learned along the way.

By setting a measurable, achievable goal every time they train, students create their own motivation through the act of disciplined achievement. That motivation means they’ll continue to persist, despite it not being easy.

And more often than not, disciplined persistence leads to success.

(Want to learn more about how to help your students stay motivated? Check out another article in this series.)

4. Switch It Up

Most gym-goers are familiar with the dreaded plateau: that situation where, no matter how many squats you do, you’re just not seeing results anymore.

But this is not often the case! Incremental improvement is still happening, but those first big leaps forward feel smaller and smaller as you improve, particularly when you’re looking at those leaps up close.

So how do you help your students combat brain fatigue and the demotivation of seemingly-lackluster results?

Step back and take stock. Don’t forget to build perspective into a “workout” routine. This doesn’t necessarily imply that your students will need a break (we’ll touch more on that a little later) or that their tracking needs to be tweaked (again, more on that in a moment), but rather that it might just be time to switch it up a bit.

Consider substituting some new training material for a bit. Tackle a Cyber Learning Game, dive into a new tool, or take a tour of the Project Ares gym and have a chat about what other areas look interesting and exciting.

By giving their digital forensics “muscle” a chance to relax and recharge (and by giving the brain an opportunity to do the same), the plateau that your students imagine will seem much less of reality from their new perspective.

Improvements are happening. They just have a way of being hard to see when we get too close.

5. Take Breaks

Another great way to gain some perspective is to build in a real break. Even those most intense HIIT workouts will feature a 10-second rest, and the Project Ares gym is no different. We’re only human, after all.

We know the effects of staring at a screen for too long. We know how much more productive we feel when we remember to take a moment to get some water, stretch our legs, and go outside.

If long-term learning is the goal, breaks that are long enough to be relaxing (but not so long that they cause a loss of focus!) should be a part of your students’ “workout” routines in the Project Ares gym. This may seem like an obvious observation, but as anyone with a Nintendo Switch can tell you, gamification has a way of defying the time/space continuum. So set an alarm and remember to advise your students to take a break now and then!

(By the way, did you know students can save their session in Project Ares? Click here to check out how then make sure students get some air!)

6. Track Progress

One of the most important assets available to you to keep your students driving toward success is a progress tracker.

When goals that seemed so far away to them at the beginning are long-accomplished, it can be hard for them to remember what those initial micro-successes felt like. The ability to show real, tangible progress can keep your students from doubting whether their effort is really getting them any closer to their goal.

In the gym, a progress tracker can look like an app, a personal trainer’s binder, or even just a regular analog notebook where you might track the heaviness of the weights you lifted, the time of your mile, or the muscle groups you focused on.

And the good news is that we’ve got you covered here too! Check out this short video to see the reporting features that are available to all our favorite Trainers in the Project Ares gym.

Tying It Together

Ultimately, getting to the root cause of an issue is important because it allows you to streamline the solution process and develop preventative action to mitigate future issues.

By proactively implementing these 6 solutions into your training program, you’ll help your students have every resource they need to be successful in the Project Ares gym!

PS: We all know how important it is to be able to work as part of a group in the professional space — after all, “There’s no ‘I’ in TEAM”. Stay tuned for the next article in this series where we’ll dive into three practical ways to work as a group in the Project Ares gym!

Next in this series: 👇👇👇

“Gym people”.

These glorious humans have somehow cracked the code on waking up obscenely early, getting in an hour-long sweat session, and then — can you imagine? — enjoying a protein shake.

We poke fun at them, but deep down, I think we’re all curious: how did they do it? How did they go from binging Baywatch on the couch to looking like they stepped off the set of the show?

RELATED: The Ultimate Trainer’s Guide to the Project Ares Gym

“Hard work and dedication,” we’re told.

And we think, “Well, I can do that!”

So, we head to the gym and try not to stare at all the Dwayne Johnsons around us. We wander around, pretending we know what we’re doing; we pick up a weight or two, pose with a machine, and lay on a yoga mat to contort our bodies into that downward dog back-breaker we saw our niece doing during Thanksgiving, then we hit the sauna and call it a day.

But after a week of this with no visible results, we’re annoyed, disappointed, and worst of all, we’re out a hundred bucks. We shrug and assume we just missed out on inheriting those “super fit” genes like the jacked genetic jackpots around us. But actually, we only missed out on something surprisingly easy to come by: a training plan.

The New Dwaynes

Fast forward a few months and you’ve got this workout routine down. You started one day at a time to make a commitment to yourself and with small changes, you cracked the code!

Now, you’re the Dwayne Johnson starring at the newbie gym-goer who’s busy trying not to stare at you. And you can see their aimlessly-wandering mistakes a mile away.

• They get overwhelmed. They don’t know what equipment to use or even how to use it. They’re bound to feel confused and frustrated, but they don’t ask for help because they feel like they should “just know” what to do.
• They develop bad habits. In an effort to force results without guidance, they use equipment in ways that are inefficient at best and downright detrimental at worst.
• They lose steam. With high expectations and a low return on their financial investment, they’re getting frustrated and disappointed fast. Why should they keep showing up if nothing’s happening?

Check Out Our Curriculum Guide

Take me there!

The Personal Trainer

In every gym, you’ll find a variety of Personal Trainers: people who assess the current abilities of their clients, evaluate their clients’ goals, and then offer a plan that builds a bridge between that coveted “before” and “after” photo.

And the Project Ares cyber gym is no different!

As a Trainer in Project Ares, you’ll take all kinds of ideas into account in order to help your students make the virtual gains of their cyber training dreams. (More on that next week 😉).

And as a result, the plan that you ultimately create with them in mind will be tailored to exactly what they need, exactly when they need it to put them on a one-way trip to their future cyber triathlon.

Great!

…how?

Which Training Plan is Right for You?

Okay, the value of a training plan is clear but what kinds of trainers use them? Is there a plan out there specifically for you?

This is where we come in!

While it’s true that each individual Trainer in the Project Ares gym is as different as each individual person, we’ve noticed that most Trainers tend to fall into one of these three categories:

The Self-Starter

The Self-Starter makes sure the only fingerprints on their training plan are their own. They’ve either already built it themselves or they’re in the process of building it, and now all they need is a training ground with equipment to make their plan a reality.

The Project Ares Cyber Curriculum Guide  provides information about all the scenarios with details like lab hints and videos accessible to Trainer roles. We got you covered!

The Visionary

The Visionary has a fabulous final goal (aka learning objective) for their students to achieve and makes use of a time-saving collaboration with Project Ares experts to tailor a training plan specific to them and their students. Using Project Ares to deliver a purposeful training experience to students takes some prep work. If you already have a cyber training outline developed and are adding Project Ares labs to it, we can help save you some time so you can get back to teaching!

The Diver

The Diver is passionate about training and gets started as soon as possible! This Trainer uses a tried-and-tested, pre-built Project Ares training program so they can hop right into getting their students from “before” to “after”.Working with our teaching partner, Phase2 Advantage, you can bring your cyber gym students pre-packaged cyber certification courses  in incident response, digital forensics, or security operations, all of which include labs in Project Ares. It’s a win-win!

So no matter whether you prefer to design your plan from scratch, DIY it, or grab it off the shelf, the Project Ares gym can take it. Show us what you’ve got!

Final Thoughts

Here’s what it comes down to.

To help your students be the best, you have to give them the best. And how do you do that? By making a plan.

Your students need to know how much time to put in, what they’ll do with that time, and ultimately learn how to navigate the gym without you.

Because if they don’t, they won’t be able to become the “Cyber Dwayne Johnson” we all know they can be.

With a step-by-step plan that outlines what your students will do every day, complete with equipment training, practice sessions, and mini-celebrations along the way, the only thing left to stand in their way is themselves.

We’ve all been there.

We’ve paid for the membership, laced up our sneakers, and dragged ourselves through the cold and dark morning to the gym, all the while half-high-fiving ourselves for just showing up.

And we’ve stood in that atrium – stared at all the equipment – and quietly asked ourselves, “Okay…so, what now?”

Yikes, walking into the gym for the first time is overwhelming. How do you know what equipment to use? How do you even use that equipment? How many reps should you do, and oh man, what will you do tomorrow?

RELATED: What does a soldier-artist have in common with cybersecurity education?

Because even the most state-of-the-art gym in the world won’t get you to where you want to go if you don’t know how to use it.

So what does this have to do with cybersecurity and Project Ares?

Everything.

What is the Project Ares Cyber Gym?

Glad you asked!

Project Ares is a cyber-gym that’s chock-full of digital treadmills, virtual weight racks, and high-tech yoga mats designed to help Players get the training they need to reach their cyber-six pack goals.

But just like at the gym, showing up is only the first step.

Players need a plan, a workout routine, and familiarity with using the equipment to safely and effectively achieve that cyber-pro skillset they’ve always dreamed of.

Enter the personal trainer.

Because Project Ares is a one-of-a-kind platform, the tools available within it can be confusing at first glance. Luckily, Project Ares is a lot like a weight training gym… watch to learn why and how to use it to meet your training and teaching objectives.

Why Trainers Matter

The Project Ares Cyber Trainer equates to the personal trainer who is hired to help their clients meet their fitness goals. In this case, you’re a professional personal trainer in the Project Ares gym! It’s your job to inspire, motivate, and empower your Players to curate their own success.

Sound a little intimidating? Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

It’s our job to show you around, familiarize you with the equipment, and make sure that you’ve got everything you need to help you build that path to your Players’ success.

That’s why we’ve made this blog series!

In this guide, we’ve gathered all the information a new Cyber Trainer needs to help their Players get the most out of the Project Ares gym.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re just getting started.

• What are your Players’ starting points and goals?
• How do you build a workout routine that works for them?
• What can you do to keep them accountable and motivated?

In this guide, we’ll tackle all of those questions (and more!) so that you can focus on doing what you do best — training.

The Ultimate Trainer’s Guide to the Project Ares Gym

Our Message to You

Just like at the gym or any self-improvement endeavor, people are ultimately only going to be as successful as the work they put in. But that work will surely be a lot easier when they’ve got someone as awesome as you leading their way. We’re psyched you’re here, and we’re psyched that you’re sharing our mission to improve cybersecurity education!

We’ll see you on the training ground!

Let’s be honest. Not every organization is blessed with an endless educational budget. (If only that were the case!)

But why should that stop you from having a killer, cyber skill-building training program?

Designing a program (whether a single course or a full-blown curriculum) from scratch doesn’t have to be overwhelming or intimidating. In fact, it can even be better than buying a pre-packaged program, especially once you have all the yoga building blocks in place. Why?

• It lets you customize your curriculum (aka “workouts”) exactly to your students’ needs
• Because you built it, you can change it at any time to better suit your students as they progress
• By investing your time, you save your money

In this guide, we’ll learn about the building blocks that will help you create the cyber workout routine that’s Goldilocks-right for you and your students. (Grab a digital pen, you might want to take notes!)

The Five Building Blocks

1. Define Your Student Demographic

Defining your student demographic means you have a clear idea of where your students are starting.

Think of it this way: someone who can barely make it up the stairs with a gallon of milk isn’t going to be able to bench press 100 lbs in their first training session. Similarly, students with no cybersecurity experience aren’t going to be ready to conduct a brute force attack on the first day of class.

So instead of diving right in and drafting lesson plans, it’s a good idea to take a step back and consider where your students currently are in their journey.

• How much experience do they have with IT topics?
• How much experience do they have with cybersecurity and its associated technology?
• What level of study have they previously completed (high school, undergrad, grad school)?

Once you understand where they’re starting, you’re ready to move on to the next building block.

2. Visualize the End Goal

Designing a workout routine for your students is like mapping a race. In the first building block, you determined where your race should start. Now, where will it end?

What will your students be able to do at the end of their training with you? After all, there’s a big difference between training for a marathon and training for a weight-lifting competition. A good gym will have all of the equipment needed for both, and it’s your job to figure out what to use to help your students reach their goals.

• Will they be able to complete a Project Ares Mission without any hints?
• Will they move into a more focused class after this one?
• Are they perhaps going to be interviewing for jobs?

Take time to visualize and write down what your students’ success will look like. Just like in the gym, visualization is a powerful tool to help make an end goal a reality. This exercise will help your students understand what your training routine will help them accomplish, and will also help keep you as their Trainer focused on the “why” as you design the individual workouts that will get them there.

3. Make A Schedule

Now that you know where your students are starting and where they’re going, it’s time to break down the distance between those two points into smaller milestones. This could be as simple as dividing the workouts across the number of weeks in the training program or as intricate as calculating the hours spent “in the gym” in total.

Regardless of how you decide to track the timeline (and this will vary widely from Trainer to Trainer), here are a few important things to keep in mind:

• Will there be mini-goals to achieve along the way? If so, how many and when?
• How long is the training program? Is it a sprint where students will be expected to show marked progress in a matter of weeks, or will you have a longer window to work with?
• How much time do you expect your students to train within that window? This can include the number of weeks or months to reach their end goal, as well as the number of hours your students can dedicate to learning.
• How frequently will your students “hit the gym”? How many of those training sessions will you be present at with them, and how many do you expect them to do on their own?

Plot this schedule out on a calendar to give you a visual representation of your students’ goals. Continue detailing this “gym time” until you have a clear and easy-to-follow path that will allow your students to move from their starting point to their end goal across the duration of your training program.

4. Plan for Different Levels of Independence

While it would be lovely for every trainee to have a personal trainer right next to them during every gym visit, the fact is they’re not always going to be there.

And actually, it’s better that way. After all, while Trainers can give a trainee (aka student) a plan and teach them to use the equipment, only the individual can accomplish the goal.

Likewise, your students will have varying types of contact with you that you’ll need to plan for.

• How many hours will they spend in a physical classroom with you?
• How many hours will they be learning remotely?
• How many more hours on top of that will they be training independently?
• How large is the class, and will training be conducted in a group or will it be self-paced?

Add these details to the schedule you created in the third building block and then take a step back to assess it more fully. Does your timeline still look realistic based on classroom synchronicity and student independence? If so, you’re ready to move to the final building block.

5. Choose Your Equipment

This is the fun part! The building blocks above are super important to have mapped out, but they alone won’t help your students reach their goals without the tools or equipment needed to get there.

The Project Ares gym is chock full of equipment to help train any cybersecurity skill. Let’s take a look at the three main categories of tools.

Cyber Learning Games

 

Foundational Scenarios: Battle Rooms

Specialized Scenarios: Missions

Each of these areas of the Project Ares gym contain different “workout machines” designed to train specific cybersecurity skills. Want to train Network Analyst skills? There’s a Foundational Scenario for that. Looking to improve your students’ ability to conduct forensics in Autopsy? There’s a Specialized Scenario for that, too.

Head over to our Cyber Learning Catalog to see the full range of equipment that Project Ares has to offer or click here to learn more about how your Project Ares team can help you choose the right equipment for your training program.

The Path to Success

You’ve built your race in its entirety now, from the starting point to the length, to the terrain, to the finish line. Now it’s time to put your custom-made training program into action!

In the next article in this series, we’ll tackle common struggles that students often face on their path to success inside the gym and how you as a Trainer can proactively help them to overcome these hurdles. Remember the 3 T’s: Training and Tools are important, but Tenacity might just top the list. 💪

Next in this series: 👇👇👇

Project Ares cyber learning labs are like a personal cyber gym. Learn cyber concepts by playing cyber learning games, learn how to use tools like Wireshark and Linux in Foundational Scenarios called Battle Rooms, and demonstrate mastery of cyber practices in our Specialized Scenarios called Missions. 

It’s estimated that 2 out of 3 people who buy gym subscriptions stop going to the gym entirely after the first month.

Putting aside the ice cream and that unnecessary call-out, what can we learn from that statistic?

Well, no matter how much we may like to think otherwise, apparently a financial investment isn’t actually enough to keep initial interest and desire around forever. (Ever been to a gym in February?)

So how do you keep your students’ energy and motivation high when the daily grind starts to overpower the novelty? Let’s take a look at seven ways you can use the tools in the Project Ares gym to keep your students lacing up their cyber sneakers every day:

1. Before and after photos
2. Make a detailed plan
3. Competition
4. Track their progress
5. Remind them of their “why”
6. Leave them wanting more
7. Reward them

All of these motivational tricks are built into the Project Ares gym and today, we’re going to show you how to use them. 

RELATED: 6 Cybersecurity Teaching Best Practices: How to Use Project Ares Like a Gym

Before and After Photos

Who doesn’t feel wildly inspired by seeing the progress that other people have made in comparison with where they started? It’s a powerful combination of relatability and realistic achievability. When your students see other students’ experiences and successes, their own success will seem that much more attainable. It’s also an excellent reminder of why the hard work is worth it. All you have to do is look at that “after” photo. 

Like these Project Ares students:

Half the battle of maintaining motivation is making new habits easy to adopt. When your students know exactly what they’ll be doing each and every day, the guesswork of progress will no longer be an excuse. In fact, it’ll be a motivator! Because they know that all they have to do is show up and put in the work, they won’t be able to say “but I haven’t planned anything for today.” 

That means it’s up to you to design a training plan, a.k.a. classroom curriculum, that gives your students the plan they need to stay motivated.

When designing that plan, keep these five elements in mind:

1. Define your student demographic
2. Visualize your end goal
3. Make a schedule
4. Plan for student independence
5. Choose your equipment

These elements will help you structure a plan that ensures you, as their trainer, keep them motivated and progressing.

Competition

If you’ve been following this series, you might remember that competition is one of three ways that we recommend using Project Ares for “group workouts”, but it’s also a great way to reboot motivation! 

When the desire to do well for personal reasons starts to wane, social pressure to perform can do wonders for boosting your students’ drive. (After all, who hasn’t pumped out an extra set to one-up Mr. Muscles sitting at the weight machine nearby?)

RELATED: 3 Ways to Use the Project Ares “Group Workout” Rooms

Whether you host a competition in the classroom, a virtual environment, or asynchronously across a couple of days, pitting students against each other to prove their cyber mastery is an incredibly effective way to encourage motivation. (You could even combine it with prizes! But more on that later.)

Track Their Progress

In the beginning, your students will feel that they seemingly have no end to their motivational stores. That’s why it’s so important to keep track of that excitement and willingness to go “all in”. When it begins to fade as the daily reality of hard work sets in, having that record of their achievements in front of them could be just the motivational boost they need. 

There are a couple of ways to track this in the Project Ares gym. There are, of course, the Trainer reports that are easily accessed through the history of each scenario:

But did you know that we have a new tool for Trainers that makes this even easier? The Instructor Dashboard on the new Project Ares web app was designed to allow instructors to track student progress and scenario completion for all Project Ares assignments using real-time data. Check it out!

Remind Them of Their “Why”

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.” In James Clear’s bestselling book on motivation and habit building, a lot of weight is given to the idea that changing our habits is really about changing our identity.

Instead of asking “what do I want to become”, encourage your students to ask, “what would this kind of person do”? Ask them to envision themselves in their future career. What would that person have done to get to where they are? What can your students do now to build that identity as if it were who they are today? 

They can simply think about this, or they can write it down to reference in future months when midterms, part-time jobs and the stressors of everyday life begin to weigh on their motivation. 

Join the Project Ares Student User Group

Students can talk with cybersecurity professionals in our exclusive Project Ares Student User Group.

Leave Them Wanting More

The great thing about gamification is that it’s…well, fun! And you can use that to your advantage as an instructor.  

Incorporating a few Objectives of a scenario into the classroom experience is a great way to motivate students to continue their work asynchronously. When they’ve already invested a little time into earning points and beating a scenario, they’re likely to feel like class is coming to an end too soon! They’ll be excited to go home and keep working, (and working during the break in between class). Students will feel recharged, rather than exhausted and burnt out. 

By stopping before your students reach the point of wanting to stop on their own, you’ll see a jump in your students’ motivation to keep going. (Try pulling anyone away from a video game before they’ve reached a saving point and you’ll see what we mean.) 

Reward Them

And last but not least, the proverbial gold medal at the end of the semester is another surefire way to keep your students’ motivational fires kindled. Of course, there are endless ways to use the gamified environment to keep students engaged with rewards, but here are some of our favorite things we’ve seen Project Ares instructors do:

• Offer an automatic “A” on the final exam to the student with the highest rank in Project Ares (or automatic extra credit to their final grade).
• Provide access to a “secret scenario” that other students don’t have access to for those who finish their assignments at least 2 days early
• Skip the chapter exam if a student finishes their scenario assignment without using any hints
• Hold short Battle Room competitions at the end of class. The student who completes the assigned objective the fastest can skip that day’s homework.

There are as many creative ideas in this category as there are instructors, and those short bursts of motivation are fun and exciting ways to keep students engaged in their work.

Last Thoughts

And just like that, you and your students are ready to hit the gym! Here’s a quick recap of this ultimate guide:

We’ll see you on the training ground! 

Surrounding yourself at the gym with like-minded gym-goers who have common goals is super motivating! Whether your team works together to flip a giant tire through the mud or follow a guided yoga class, group workouts are a great way to tackle old exercises from a new perspective.

We’ve talked about thinking about Project Ares like a gym in previous blogs in this series, so let’s take a look at the ways you can incorporate group “workouts” with your students by breaking down the 3 C’s: Competition, Collaboration, and Contextualization.

RELATED: The Ultimate Trainer’s Guide to the Project Ares Gym

Competition

Competition is what most of us think about when working out in a group setting, and for a good reason! A competitive spirit inspires us to do more.

Who hasn’t reached just a little further while staring at the ridiculously bendy gymnast in their yoga class or pumped out an extra set to one-up Mr. Muscles sitting at the weight machine next door?

That drive to be the best is no different on the Project Ares training ground and we’ve got everything you need to bring out the competitive edge in your students.

💡 Tip!

Boost your students’ competitive instincts by using the custom Leaderboard in your Trainer Tools.(Not sure how? Check it out here.)

Collaboration

Sometimes, teamwork is the best way to work through a challenge because it allows students to innovate, take risks, and recognize their strengths and weaknesses. They teach and learn from each other while honing the teamwork skills that make up a huge component of daily tasks in the workforce!

On the Project Are training ground, the Specialized Mission Scenarios, with their detailed, plot-driven storylines, are a great place for students to work together to take down the “bad guys”. 😉

💡 Tip!

Your students have the option to join Specialized Mission Scenarios as a team or individually.

Contextualization

When introducing new cybersecurity tools and concepts with Project Ares, students aren’t sitting at their desks and taking notes — they’re in “the gym” with you, their personal trainer, “lifting weights” as you lead them through a training session. Contextualization allows for this type of hands-on learning.

For students who are just getting their feet wet, this final “C” is a physical reinforcement of a new mental skill. It’s powerful for students because they feel encouraged to ask questions, stay motivated, and — most importantly — have fun while learning.

💡 Tip!

For other study materials for beginner students, check out your Cyber Learning Games .

Keep it up!

At this point, you can:

1. Design your students’ training plan.
2. Choose from the equipment available to you.
3. Avoid common pitfalls.
4. Incorporate group “workouts” into your classroom.

Now your students are set up for success in your classroom! 🎉

The only hurdle left is keeping your students inspired and motivated to come back day after day. In the next and final post of this cyber gym series, we’ll talk about 7 ways to ensure that your students continue to lace up their sneakers until they reach the finish line. 💪

Read the next post in this series: 👇 👇