Assessing Knowledge and Skills in Forensics with Alternative Assessment Pathways

Designing assessment for courses in computer science which are interdisciplinary by nature can be challenging. Challenging in making them interdisciplinary but also relevant within computing science. This paper presents the design and delivery of such an assessment for postgraduates in digital forensics that utilises assessment choice. Student teams were allowed to create either a program which implemented steganography or a report on the feasibility of such a tool being used to exfiltrate data by a whistle-blower in a fictional company. This paper reports on student feedback of this approach and provides a discussion on the benefits and concerns of utilising such an approach.