Teaching Encryption to Reluctant Programmers

An approach to teaching encryption is described in which an XOR encryption algorithm is used to demonstrate simple encryption concepts for E-Business payment with credit cards. Small groups of undergraduate and postgraduate learners manually encrypt a four-character word, and then exchange the encrypted data with another group. Each group then attempts to decrypt the data as quickly as possible. Learners show an increased understanding of the encryption process and demonstrate greater success when programming in subsequent tutorials. This work is currently being developed to enhance the teaching of asymmetric Public Key encryption.