Edinburgh University Case Study – Moderated assessment & double-blind marking
In October 2019, as part of a practitioner-led webinar series, Robert Chmielewski from the University of Edinburgh, UK discusses how PebblePad’s Learning Journey Platform offers the only viable technical solution to help the University of Edinburgh manage the complexities of moderated, double-blind assessment at scale.
View the full webinar recording at:
"The entire assessment workflow is managed in PebblePad's Assessment space, ATLAS. It's the only system capabale of managing this complex assessment form."

Robert Chmielewski, Online Assessment and Feedback Adviser, has been researching and supporting portfolio practice at the University of Edinburgh as part of his role with Information Services since 2005. His central role at the University means he works across the whole university to support and advise on formative, summative and peer
assessment and other online assessment workflows using the suite of platforms that Edinburgh subscribes to.
The University of Edinburgh has been using PebblePad for over ten years, which is now widely embedded in practice.
In this webinar, Robert considers the most technically challenging moderated assessment workflow of Double-Blind Marking (DBM), which is one of the assessment moderation methods used by the University of Edinburgh for assessments over 40 credits.
Robert makes light work of demonstrating the complexity of this one particular workflow in dissertation assessment.
The entire assessment workflow is managed in PebblePad’s Assessment Space, ATLAS, since it is the only system available to Robert that is capable of managing this complex assessment form.

Student perspective
Marker perspective
Admin perspective
Students receive a link to a dedicated PebblePad ATLAS submission page and submit their dissertations directly to this.
They receive an automated email confirming that their submission has been successful.
It’s beautifully simple.
Markers also receive direct links to the assessments they need to mark.
Markers only see the dissertations assigned to them, thanks to the use of PebblePad Sets (a means of easily and securely allocating assessors to specific subsets of students).
Marking is completed using custom PebblePad templates to ensure consistency with departmental grading. The dissertations are also run through Turnitin, and the Originality Scores are available to view in the ATLAS submission view.
Finally, some markers require paper copies of the dissertations. PebblePad’s batch download feature enables print needs to be handled centrally, making life easier for the students.
Admin users are allocated appropriate permissions to allow them to scrutinise the progress of the marking process. Admin staff can also easily see approval indicators to check when first and second markers have provided their feedback.
One of the brilliant things that PebblePad supports is the ability to release the final grade and summative feedback to the student, while holding back the dialogue and comments relating to the reconciliation of the DBM process.
However, every element of feedback from the entire process is saved securely against the student record for future scrutiny and audit.
View the full webinar recording at: