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Applying Academics’ Expertise to an Intuitive Digital Experience

In this session, Lexy Buchan, Lead Learning Technologist at the University of East Anglia (UEA), shares how her team reshaped onboarding, training and support to ensure PebblePad remained intuitive and sustainable as adoption surged across the university.

Following UEA’s move to site‑wide implementation, PebblePad usage has expanded at an exceptional pace – from 2,000 to more than 10,000 internal users, plus tens of thousands of externals. This growth revealed clear opportunities to enhance clarity, strengthen consistency and build even greater user confidence.

Lexy outlines how UEA embraced this momentum by placing academic insight at the heart of design decisions, simplifying early choices and building a support ecosystem that empowers colleagues while keeping the platform’s huge potential accessible.

Session highlights include:

  • Scaling PebblePad from local pilots to successful institution‑wide use
  • Enhancing UX across workspaces, feedback, auto-submission, externals and permissions
  • Adopting a consultative approach that helps academics create effective, sustainable workbooks
  • Improving large‑scale external assessor workflows through strong foundations including collections, tagging, dates and signatures
  • Optimising clarity through reusable guidance, student demos and clear escalation routes, plus using drop‑ins and ticket trends, to drive continuous improvement
  • Keeping PebblePad simple and intuitive at scale while retaining its depth and flexibility

Lexy also shares practical advice and design strategies that help both educators and students understand not just how PebblePad works – but why it works so effectively at scale.

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Curriculum Transformation at the University of Edinburgh: co-creation and the relationship between local innovation and institutional change

Talk description: I will use the themes of reflection and experiential learning, skills development and assessment (including programme level assessment and changes in assessment practice) to explore this process in more detail. This includes the link between disciplinary and institutional curriculum reform, learning from local innovations and changes, and using this to inform University level changes and support.

Bio: My current position is leading the University wide Curriculum Transformation Project. This is a major and long term initiative for the University considering all areas of the University’s undergraduate and taught postgraduate curriculum. Prior to this Jon set up and led the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) at the University of Edinburgh. The IAD provides University level support for teaching, learning and researcher development, including direct support for students and staff, and support for enhancement and innovation in curriculum development, the student and researcher experience. Jon has a PhD in petroleum geology.

Mission Possible: The DNA of a bespoke professional development program

Talk description: The diversity of students in higher education dictates that there cannot (and should not) be a single ‘silver bullet’ approach to address the complex challenge of career readiness learning. However, the reality of modern university structures is that delivering bespoke experiences for each student is a challenge in and of itself.  And yet, all things are possible with creative use of PebblePad to streamline delivery (for the university) and make it highly personalised (for the student). 

Bio: Gayle Brent is a Learning and Teaching Consultant (Employability) at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Gaye’s specialist area of interest is developing and implementing strategies to enhance staff and student understanding of employability in both curricular and extra-curricular contexts. She completed a Master of Education and Professional Studies Research to explore the potential barriers and challenges to embedding employability-based learning in higher education curriculum and is currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy exploring the impact of an extra-curricular employability program on the individual student experience.

Dr Melissa Highton. Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh

Talk description: A journey through the stories told by wicca data. How a neglected research data set was used by students to overturn historic injustice and shed new light on the lives of women in Scotland.

Bio: Melissa has worked for many years in higher education at some of the UK’s finest and most ancient institutions. In each place she enjoys discovering the hidden histories and less heard voices which can be surfaced in new ways using the most up to date and open technologies. She is a champion of playful and curious approaches to engagement with audiences on campus and online, and is an invited speaker at events about dangerous women.

Education is an Experience That Should Be Designed

Talk description: We have any number of problems and opportunities as universities, and universities must adapt to help students from diverse backgrounds develop the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and make a positive impact in the world. Key to those adaptations is understanding that we provide students with an experience. We ought to design them with intention and purpose. This talk with take up this argument and ground it within a large educational transformation project at the University of Leeds.

Bio: Jeff Grabill is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Education at the University of Leeds. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, Grabill was at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States for nearly 20 years. He served Michigan State University as the Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. In that role, he was responsible for facilitating innovation in learning and educator professional development via his role as Director of the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Grabill’s research focuses on how digital writing is associated with citizenship and learning. That work has been located in community contexts, in museums, and in classrooms at both the K-12 and university levels. Grabill is also a co-founder of Drawbridge, an educational technology company.

Disclaimers

The event agenda is correct at the time of publishing. As with all events, we may need to alter or modify aspects of the agenda.

While we take every precaution to ensure the safety and security of our events, Pebble Learning Ltd recommends you review insurance policies to ensure adequate coverage, especially in the realm of business travel.

We will be recording (audio/video) the presentations during the event. A conference photographer will also be capturing moments for our highlights reel. The video and photography will be used to share insights and market PebbleBash to the wider HE community. We do not give automatic refunds, please see the cancellation policy in the FAQs.

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