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Learning Technology Team

NILE Guides

Information for Staff

Getting set up

Before your students can start using PebblePad, you need to have the following things set up in this order:

You are required to give your Learning Technologist a minimum of TWO WEEKS’ notice of the date you will be introducing PebblePad to your students.

To release your workbooks to your students you first need to have an assignment created

Student accounts:
PebblePad is not linked with any of the other university systems, therefore your Learning Technologist will manually create the student accounts for you. Please use the following process to ensure data is accurate and can be processed efficiently.

1) Access the SITS record system: https://sits.northampton.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_lgn

2) Select 'Programme' or 'Module'.

3) Enter your programme or module code and select 'Actively Enrolled Students and Pre-enrolled Students' from the Enrolment Status options. 

4) Use the 'View Classlist' option to view your Classlist, followed by, 'Copy To Excel file' to generate your spreadsheet (you may have more than one Classlist and therefore more than one excel file).

5) Check to ensure you have the correct information.

6) Email the Excel spreadsheet(s) to your Learning Technologist.

7) Tell your Learning Technologist THE DATE you are introducing PebblePad to the students. The accounts need to be set up less than 24 hours before the students are required to use it. 

8) Once your Learning Technologist has confirmed the accounts are set up, you can send an announcement via NILE advising students to look out for the email from PebblePad including checking the junk folder.

Warning: You must ensure the assignments are set up and workbooks have been added to the workspace, BEFORE the student accounts are created. 

 

The workspace:

Your Learning Technologist will create the workspace for you. The workspace will be named according to the Module ID or the Subject area, with the cohort start month and year in brackets. e.g. EDU1026 (Sept 18) or Nursing (Sept 18). Whole subject workspaces will be used for the duration of the programme. Assignments for year 1, year 2 and year 3 will all be set up in the same workspace.

You will be added to the workspace and it is your responsibility to add your colleagues as managers. Please use the link below for information on how to do this.

How to create an assignment

These instructions take you through setting up the first assignment for the workspace and for all additional assignments, it will say Create an assignment, then you can skip down to the settings in the table.

1) Log in to PebblePad, and click the blue circle icon from the top toolbar to enter ATLAS.

2) Click the name of your workspace to open it.

3) Click Management, then Assignments.

4) Click Use multiple assignments.

management, assignments

5) For the default assignment type 'Delete me' as the title and leave the description blank.

6) Click Continue.

7) Follow the settings in the table below for your assignment and please ask your Learning Technologist about anything you are not sure about. 

Option What to choose
Choose an assignment type Member submissions
Submission Viewer

Submission Viewer 2

Title Identical to the title of the corresponding workbook.
Description Leave blank
Submission locking Leave unticked
Submission versioning Leave unticked
Work can be submitted any time after Do not change *
Work cannot be submitted after Set the submission deadline (can be added later if dates are not yet known).
Unless this late submission date is set Allow a 2-week buffer after the deadline.
Work already submitted can be modified until The same as 'work cannot be submitted after'. Make sure date and time match.
Maximum number of submissions per user Do not change (must be 1)
Which types of submissions should be accepted?
  • Tick Allow submissions from Pebble+
  • Select Restrict submissions to specific Asset types
  • Tick Workbook only
  • Allow auto-submit resources
Do you want to prevent users from removing their submissions? tick Prevent users from removing their submissions

8) Save your assignment.

Warning: *If the assignment isn't open when students open their workbook, it will not auto-submit and they will not be given another opportunity.


9) Click the rubbish bin icon to delete the 'delete me' assignment.

10) Tick and click Continue.

Assigning workbooks to students in a workspace

The following example shows you how to add a Workbook to your workspace, but resources also include Templates.

Make sure you're logged in with your Admin account (also referred to as a resource account). If you do not have the log in details please ask your colleagues or your Learning Technologist.

Before adding your workbook to the workspace, you must make a copy of the MASTER:

  • From the PebblePad homepage go to resources;
  • Click the  information button to the right of the master workbook;
  • Click the I want to... button;
  • Choose Copy;
  • Scroll down and remove the word 'master', replacing it with the month and year the cohort started in the brackets. At the end of the filename add Yr1, Yr2 or Yr3 if students use multiple versions of the same workbook across the programme of study;
  • Click Confirm.

The copied version will appear at the top of your list of resources. This may take a moment and you may need to refresh the page. Do not repeat the process thinking it hasn't done it.

  • If any of your pages have a date release, you must add the dates again (they do not copy over).
  • Check that any links still work. The original website may have changed and in other cases, the hyperlink hasn't been copied over correctly.

Once you have your workbook for the new cohort, you can go to ATLAS and into the relevant workspace.

  • Click on Resources
  • In the resource panel click on the yellow file icon - you can identify this by hovering over it - the message Add a resource will appear. (see image below)

  • Click on the My Workbooks tab
  • Find the Workbook you want to match to the assignment. (newest is at the top)
  • When you have found the correct one click on Select item:

There are a few settings that need to be completed so that the resource (workbook) is successfully attached to the assignment:

Option What option to choose
How would you like to refer to this resource Refer to this resource on the Workspace using its existing title and description
Would you like to prompt the user to auto-submit the workbook when saved? YES 
Choose an assignment to publish the resource to Select the assignment that matches the name of your workbook
Would you like other people to use this resource on their workspaces? No
Would you like to allow a user to complete this Workbook in ATLAS? No
  • Tick the I have read this information and wish to continue box.
  • Continue.

If you want to make any further edits to the resource settings click on the orange cog to the right of the resource.

If you want to delete the resource then click on the rubbish bin.

You can also add further resources to the panel by clicking on the Add a resource button and following the previous steps.

When finished click Save and then the Back button at the top left of the Edit panel. 

 

Warning

Do not make any edits to a live workbook! Once the workbook is accessed by students and they've started working on it, any changes can result in students and assessors losing their entries

How to give an extension

When the date and time set on the assignment elapses, anything the student does on their workbook will not be shown on their submission. A snapshot is created and you will only see the workbook as it was at that exact date and time. However, if students need longer and you grant them an extension, their additional work will be visible.

Please follow the instructions found in the link below to grant an extension to students.

External Moderation

  • For a brand new External Examiner, you will need to contact your designated Learning Technologist to get your External Examiner a PebblePad account. You must provide us with their 58 number, first name, surname, and the email address for their normal place of work.
  • Once set up; add your External Examiner as a 'Manager' to your workspace.
  • The External Examiner will be added without a role and you will need to click on 'personalise'.
  • Under 'Manage Learning' ensure 'View all sets' is ticked to ensure the External Examiner can see submissions from all the students.

Note: If your External Moderator already has a PebblePad account, you may find it had been set up as a mentor account, in which case you can add them to your list of 'Externals', again making sure they can view all sets.

If you require assistance with NILE, please contact LearnTech Support using the NILE Enquiry Form

If you require assistance with PebblePad, please contact PebblePad Support using the PebblePad Contact Form