The PebblePad Story

A tale of one mission, more than a few lines of code, and a raft of delighted customers.

Since 2004 we've been building software that helps universities support students in every step of their unique learning journeys.

A foreword from our founder

PebblePad emerged in response to two things that worried me back in 2004. The first was that edtech was firmly rooted in delivering content and much less concerned with learners and their learning experiences; the second was that edtech largely disenfranchised individual educators. And so we set out to develop a learning platform that helped educators help their learners to plan for, make sense of, and make connections between their diverse learning experiences. Today, as more and more institutions align with our vision for student success, I am incredibly proud of the platform and the culture we've created.

As CEO I steer the direction of travel for the ongoing development of PebblePad as a product, a service and a business. I see myself as protector and prodder of our wonderful team, champion and chief critic of our product, reader and writer of recurring reports, partner and provocateur to our amazing community, world-wide wanderer and educational wonderer - always trying to live up to my accorded title, Chief Mischief Maker.

Shane Sutherland (Founder & CEO)

Our Journey

We've come an awfully long way since the PebblePad journey began in 2002 in a makeshift office above Shane's garage. With so many journey touchpoints since then, we’ve opted to highlight just a few of our milestones – from our first employee to our first award, to our global expansion and becoming THE Learning Journey Platform. And as more and more partner organisations join us around the globe, we're looking ever forward to adding more.

April 2004

Employee No. 1

After a long period of 'helping out' and being paid in mostly pizza and tea, Toni Lavender joins as the company's first permanent employee. Toni is tasked with working her magic so the University of Wolverhampton can begin an eportfolio trial in September. Leap forward 17 years, and Toni is still with us – as our dynamic Development Director!

I have been fortunate enough to be part of the growth of PebblePad over the past 17 years, from a fledgeling start-up to a multinational business. I am proud of so many things we have achieved together and I am appreciative of the opportunity to guide those at the start of their career journeys as we prepare them to be our leaders of the future.

Toni Lavender - Development Director

September 2007

Time to celebrate

The team wins an award in ALT's Learning Technologist of the Year Competition. It's the first of several awards we'll proudly put on our trophy shelf, including the prestigious IMS Global Impact Award in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton.

Every time I work with customers to understand their strategic goals I am excited about the potential of PebblePad to help them make a real difference to student outcomes. Great educational technology software should provide the opportunity for educators to re-imagine learning, curriculum delivery and assessment - and PebblePad is that trusted partner.

Sam Blyth - Senior Director, Business Development

August 2009

G'Day Australia

The company ventures a long way from its UK headquarters to see if any Australian universities would be interested in PebblePad. There is overwhelmingly positive feedback and interest, and we immediately land four new Australian partners. Some of the UK team consider buying a surfboard.

I'm delighted to be part of a company that is committed to putting community first. Watching and supporting the growing examples of innovative (and award-winning) practice from our Australian partners has been a source of great pride during my time as a PebblePaddler - a journey which now spans more than a decade.

Alison Poot - Senior Director, APAC

February 2015

Across the pond we go

PebblePad sets off across the Atlantic to launch in North America. Things get off to a flying start with four partners, representing both the United States and Canada, quick to join the PebblePad community. It marks the beginning of a vibrant North American user community.

As a lifelong, or at least decades long portfolio using educator, I spent many years searching for a platform that promotes and enables student-centered learning while also supporting authentic student-centered assessment. PebblePad is that platform, and my work at PebblePad allows me to do what I love every day: help transform the learning experience for students and educators across the learning journey.

Gail Ring - Regional Director (North America)

January 2021

The Learning Journey Platform

With PebblePad being increasingly used to support institution-wide initiatives and scaffold end-to-end learning journeys that make a real difference to student success, PebblePad becomes known as THE Learning Journey Platform.

I continue to be impressed with the engagement and support that the PebblePad team continues to provide to guide us on our learning journey. We couldn't have come this far without this support.

University of Waterloo

Our Journey Stat-ometer

Just some of the things that makes PebblePad awesome

120+

Product Releases

Our roadmap has always been guided by the pebblegogical wishlists of our active PebblePad community.

60+

PebblePaddlers

We're an ever growing band of innovators and educators, committed to helping universities transform the learning journey.

100+

Partners

Big enough to be trusted by leading organisations, but small enough to value every partner, our customer-base, just like our team, is growing year on year.

65,000+

Litres of tea

A guesstimate of how many cups of tea have fuelled our non-stop innovation. We didn't dare tally the chocolate biscuit count!

10+

Awards

We're proud of our success in helping our partners be recognised for their outstanding learning & teaching design with PebblePad.

Mission

To create products that help learners plan for, make sense of, and share the outcomes of their unique learning journeys.

There's something about the PebblePad Team

We like to think that PebblePaddlers are a special bunch. We're focussed on success - of the new partner organisations joining our communities around the world, of achieving firsts, and of making real differences to peoples' lives (our own people, our customers and their users). We're proud of our responsiveness to and collaboration with our community, and our commitment to keep raising the bar on excellence in educational software.

I love working at PebblePad because it feels like 'home'. PebblePad has something really special about it, that makes me excited to log on each day. It's a holy trinity of great leadership, exceptional people and an exciting product. I've never felt so able to be fully myself and to really thrive in my role as I do here.

Jude Smalley - Agile Coach

Our Heritage

For the past 17 years we have shared our unique blend of technology and educational expertise to help universities across the globe transform the learning journey. It's why we spend our days crafting purposeful technology to help educators support, guide and develop students – from induction to graduation, and beyond.

As a university Learning Technologist I spent years supporting academic colleagues in getting the most out of PebblePad. Now I help the whole global PebblePad community. It's a privilege to bring a long-time user's voice closer to the development process.

Iain Griffin - Learning Services

I love working at PebblePad because I learn new things every day from the friendly and helpful people who surround me. The PebblePad culture inspires me to be my best, and working with passionate people who share my ambitions is motivating and energising.

Tejvir Sohi - Apprentice Application Developer

Our Values

Our culture is one of respect, inclusivity, togetherness, mutual support and gratitude. This ethos permeates through all of our interactions, both with each other and with our partners. We deliver excellence in the big stuff and in the little detail, and our partners trust us because they know we have their best interests at heart and we understand their world.

Jenny Masters - Implementation Specialist - Australia

I love doing this kind of work because innovating with PebblePad is my 'thing'. I used the platform extensively as a teacher educator and I have experienced first-hand how powerful it is for capturing the learning journey. It is a delight to now be able to help others to harness PebblePad to transform their own teaching and learning programs.

Jenny Masters - Implementation Specialist - Australia

Four reasons why universities across the globe trust us to help them make a meaningful difference to their students' success

Trusted Experts

We're more than a little proud of our 17-year track record of helping universities scaffold learning journeys which make a meaningful difference to student success.

Customers First

We're big enough to be trusted by leading organisations across the globe, but small enough to value every partner. It's why our customer-base, just like our team, is growing year on year.

Transformational Capability

PebblePad offers unrivalled capability when it comes to student-centred learning - helping universities transform the learning journey on and off campus - at any scale, across any context.

Secure & Reliable

Our customers rely on us to support business-critical activity at scale, 24 hours a day. You only need to look at our uptime and usage data to see that PebblePad is a platform you can trust.

Solutions to support...

Services to support...

The PebblePad Story

The PebblePad Story

The PebblePad Story

A foreword from our founder