There is an identified need to investigate supervisory instructional practices that can effectively manage the cognitive load and needs of student clinicians (SCs) during various stages of clinical development (Young, Van Merrienboer, Durning, & Ten Cate, 2014). This investigation aimed to study an interactive, technology-based method for providing feedback to promote the transfer of knowledge from clinical supervisors to SCs. A substantial body of empirical evidence supports the use of Bluetooth technology to provide real-time feedback during clinical sessions, known as “bug-in-the-ear” (BITe) feedback (Gallant & Thyer, 1 989; Goodman, Brady, Duffy, Scott, & Pollard, 2008; Rock et al., 2009; Rosenberg, 2006; Scheeler & Lee, 2002). The use of computer monitors to provide real-time written feedback, referred to as “bug-in-the-eye” (BITi) feedback, recently emerged in the literature with preliminary evidence to support its effectiveness (Carmel, Villatte, Rosenthal, Chalker & Comtois, 2015; Weck, 2015). All participants in this investigation were students enrolled in a clinical practicum at an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) accredited communication disorders and sciences (CDS) program housed within a state-funded university in the midwestern United States. This investigation employed a single subject, sequential A-B design with two participants to observe the effects of implementing real-time feedback using a smartwatch on the clinical behavior of SCs. The use of a smartwatch to deliver real-time BITi feedback has not been previously considered for BITi feedback. A celeration trend line, descriptive statistics and a stability band were used to analyze the data by slope, trend and variability (Gast & Ledford, 2014). Results demonstrated a significant correlative relationship between BITi feedback with a smartwatch and an increase in positive clinical behaviors.
Keywords: Clinical feedback, speech-language pathology, real-time, smartwatch
