Rationale: Audiology student training in New Zealand faces many difficulties with a limited number of qualified instructors and suitable external placements. With a continued shortage of audiologists in New Zealand, new methods of training need to be introduced and implemented. One solution is through the use of realistic, computer-based virtual patient simulators (VPS). HIT Lab New Zealand in conjunction with the University of Canterbury has designed a VPS for New Zealand audiology students. A speech audiometry component is to be developed based on best practice recommendations, and needs to be validated. Method: Two studies, one with 18 Master of Audiology (“expert”) and another with 18 (“novice”) undergraduate students, were evenly divided into simulator and non-simulator user groups. Simulator users had to complete 5 virtual patient cases in addition to the non-simulator users’ requirement to refer to provided lecture notes and speech audiometry protocols. Novice students were assessed on declarative, procedural and retained knowledge of speech audiometry; expert students were additionally assessed on training transfer. The intervention period was set at two weeks, and the retention assessment at four weeks post-intervention.   Results: Expert students who used the simulator significantly improved their training transfer skills. No significant differences were found between and within groups for declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Training transfer and procedural knowledge were retained for both groups, but only non-simulator users retained declarative knowledge. Novice students who used the simulator significantly increased their declarative knowledge. Both groups’ procedural knowledge significantly regressed post-intervention. Declarative and procedural knowledge were retained for both groups. Implications: Simulator use appears to accelerate learning outcomes otherwise achievable through traditional learning methods, and does depend on the users’ existing knowledge base. Regular use may be necessary to retain desired learning outcomes. Improvements (e.g., more detailed feedback systems) are to be incorporated into the simulator, and sole reliance on the simulator for learning is not recommended. Future research into more holistic aspects of virtual patient use within the field of audiology and allied health care is warranted.

Computer programming is a core area in computer science education that involves practical as well as conceptual learning goals. The literature in programming education reports however that novice students have great problems in their learning. These problems apply to concepts as well as to practise. The empirically based research presented in this thesis contributes to the body of knowledge on students' learning by investigating the relationship between conceptual and practical learning in novice student learning of programming. Previous research in programming education has focused either on students' practical or conceptual learning. The present research indicates however that students' problems with learning to program partly depend on a complex relationship and mutual dependence between the two. The most significant finding is that practise, in terms of activities at different levels of proficiency, and qualitatively different conceptual understandings, have dimensions of variation in common. An analytical model is suggested where the dimensions of variation relate both to concepts and activities. The implications of the model are several. With the dimensions of variation at the center of learning this implies that when students discern a dimension of variation, related conceptual understandings and the meaning embedded in related practises can be discerned. Activities as well as concepts can relate to more than one dimension. Activities at a higher level of proficiency, as well as qualitatively richer understandings of concepts, relate to more dimensions of variation. Concrete examples are given on how variation theory and patterns of variation can be applied in teaching programming. The results can be used by educators to help students discern dimensions of variation, and thus facilitate practical as well as conceptual learning.