Ten years ago new computer science and programming achievement standards were introduced to New Zealand's national curriculum for students in their final three years at high school. However, as recent research has shown, the goal of placing these subjects on a par with subjects such as Physics and Maths has not been met. Therefore it is timely to investigate why student participation and retention for computer science and programming standards remain low. In this article, we present results from an in-depth qualitative study of students' perspectives regarding computer science and programming achievement standards. We identify eight main themes which students report as directly influencing their participation and retention in these standards. For example the placement of these standards outside the core academic areas in the curriculum, issues with the content, the assessments, and support materials as well as the guidance provided by some schools were identified as major obstacles for participation.

Over six years we developed our first-year programming course, delivered through scheduled lectures and assessed by practical tests and a final examination, into a mastery learning-oriented course. In this study we provide an in-depth view of how successive adjustments to the course resulted in changes in student behaviour impacting task completion, final grades and activity patterns. Data from this period involving over 1300 students is presented and augmented with student feedback. Our results show that the successive move to a fully-fledged mastery model resulted in an overall decreasing task completion with longer periods of inactivity. Interventions to increase student engagement with the course were only partly successful. In this paper we present a long-term study to highlight opportunities and challenges when shifting to a mastery learning model.

Computer science and programming achievement standards were introduced as elective subjects in New Zealand's high schools 10 years ago, but still the uptake is very low. Fewer than 4% of students chose to take computer science and fewer than 10% took programming each year. This motivated us to explore students' reasons for not considering these subjects. Ten semi-structured interviews conducted with first year students who were enrolled in an introductory programming course resulted in eight main themes. Most important reasons for not taking the standards were a lack of guidance and the placement of those subjects outside the core academic subjects in the curriculum.

Learning the first programming language is challenging for many students. High failure rates and bimodally distributed grades lead to a pedagogical interest in supporting students in first-year programming courses (CS1). In higher education, the important role of feedback for guiding the learning process and improving the learning outcome is widely acknowledged. This article introduces contemporary models of effective feedback practice as found in the higher education literature and offers an interpretation of those in the CS1 context. One particular CS1 course and typical course components are investigated to identify likely loci for feedback interventions and to connect related computer science education literature to these forms of feedback.

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to change the way therapy and rehabilitation is understood and administered. It can be used to manipulate the experience of reality, resulting in novel rehabilitative applications including but not limited to augmented mirror box (AMB) manipulations. We present a conceptual framework for the effective use of AR in a therapeutic context developed around the aspects of belief, interactivity, predictability, and decoupling. This framework is based on previous work in perception and emotion manipulation and is derived from and illustrated with a number of empirical studies. In particular, we describe how our augmented reflection technology (ART) system is able to manipulate the experience of reality in an effective way and how this demonstrates the potential of augmented environments to improve health and wellbeing.

Mixed reality rehabilitation systems and games are demonstrating potential as innovative adjunctive therapies for health professionals in their treatment of various hand and upper limb motor impairments. Unilateral motor deficits of the arm, for example, are commonly experienced post stroke. Our TheraMem system provides an augmented reality game environment that contributes to this increasingly rich area of research. We present a prototype system which “fools the brain” by visually amplifying users' hand movements — small actual hand movements lead to perceived larger movements. We validate the usability of our system in an empirical study with forty-five non-clinical participants. In addition, we present early qualitative evidence for the utility of our approach and system for stroke recovery and motor rehabilitation. Future uses of the system are considered by way of conclusion.

This paper describes the concept, prototypical implementation, and usability evaluation of an augmented virtuality (AV) based videoconferencing (VC) system: "cAR/PE!". We present a first solution which allows three participants at different locations to communicate over a network in an environment simulating a traditional face-to-face meeting. Integrated into the AV environment are live video streams of the participants spatially arranged around a virtual table, a large virtual presentation screen for 2D display and application sharing, and 3D geometry (models) within the room and on top of the table.