Circadence Wins Silver and Bronze Awards for NexAgent from International Serious Play Awards — Circadence Corporation

BOULDER, Colo. – July 14, 2020 – PRLog — The 2020 International Serious Play Awards named Circadence Corporation, a market leader in cybersecurity readiness, a silver award winner in the “K-12 education literacy” category and a bronze award winner in “corporate/vocational skills game” category for NexAgent, Circadence’s prototype learning experience. Immersive education comes to life for users in this unique network exploration game, as it combines teaching objectives with cybersecurity subjects and even droids to facilitate engagement and interactive learning about network security.

NexAgent uses first-person video game design whereby the player takes on the perspective of an operator, tasked with investigating common network challenges and performing remediations. The gamified learning platform was developed to teach foundational network security skills in an emulated workplace environment and designed to support entry-level cybersecurity professionals, IT generalists, and students seeking to develop “future ready” skills in network security.

The first-person playing experience in NexAgent is supported by core networking and security curriculum topics whereby concepts such as network segmentation and hardening and safety are addressed. The gaming structure in NexAgent allows players to learn at their own pace, while gaining confidence to explore deeper networking concepts later in their educational journey. 

A player can accomplish learning objectives in NexAgent by interacting with simulation droids to learn tasks that need to be accomplished; engaging with responsive command line interfaces to identity glitches in network configurations; and, progressing through a series of cyber tasks to address vulnerabilities. Athena, an in-game coaching bot, provides task objectives and player feedback, while a Technical Reference Guide helps the player learn about cyber subjects, definitions, and purpose.  

“We are thrilled NexAgent has been recognized as a viable and inventive learning solution for students and cyber professionals to build network security skills in a fun and engaging way,” said Wes Knee, Vice President of Marketing and Creative at Circadence. “Learning complex topics like network security, doesn’t have to be a struggle. This award recognition helps validate Circadence’s commitment to the effectiveness of gamification and learning and shows just how attainable cyber knowledge can be.”

Serious Play Award judges received access to the games to meticulously evaluate each entry. The award program reviews each digital game entry and recognizes outstanding games developed for education or training in business, government/military, healthcare, museums, K-12, and higher education.

NexAgent is foundational to the continued content and design explorations happening with Circadence’s flagship product, Project Ares. Circadence gamified training platforms like Project Ares signifies the potential for immersive learning to gain widespread adoption in the cybersecurity training sector. It also serves as inspiration for future training exercises that are being developed by Circadence.  You can see the demo of NexAgent and Project Ares here (https://www.circadence.com/demos/).

About Circadence
Circadence Corporation is a market leader in next-generation cybersecurity readiness. Powered by a culture of innovation and the demands of an evolving cyber landscape, Circadence offers cyber range solutions and cybersecurity learning platforms, running on Microsoft Azure, that leverage custom content to address critical security challenges for enterprise, government, and academic institutions. Circadence’s solutions deliver persistent, immersive and true-to-life experiences that match and adapt to contemporary threat environments. Circadence is also a Microsoft Gold Partner. For more information, visit www.circadence.com.