About PitchCompare
A tool for evaluating student pitches through pairwise comparison — more reliable, less subjective, and grounded in the same mathematics used by chess grandmasters.
The Subjectivity Trap
Traditional rubrics ask evaluators to rate a pitch on a fixed scale — say, 1 to 5 for "clarity". This approach has a fundamental flaw known as inter-rater unreliability: different people calibrate scales differently. One professor's 4 is another's 3. A student who evaluates early in the session rates differently from one who evaluates after fatigue sets in.
When the stakes are grades, these inconsistencies matter. Rubric scores can reflect how strict the evaluator is just as much as how good the pitch actually was.
✗ Rubric Scoring
- Absolute scales are hard to calibrate
- Prone to halo effects and anchoring bias
- Rater fatigue distorts late evaluations
- Students must evaluate quality in the abstract
✓ Pairwise Comparison
- One simple question: which is better?
- Easier and more reliable for the human brain
- Bias cancels out across many comparisons
- Produces consistent, stable rankings
The Wisdom of the Crowd
Psychologist L.L. Thurstone established in 1927 that humans are far more accurate at relative judgments ("A is better than B") than absolute ones ("A is a 3.8/5"). His Law of Comparative Judgmentis the theoretical foundation for pairwise comparison.
PitchCompare distributes comparisons across an entire class. Each student sees a small number of pairs, but the collective signal from all comparisons produces a ranking far more reliable than any single evaluator. Individual quirks and biases average out; the signal from a genuinely excellent pitch rises to the top.
This mirrors how platforms like Google PageRank, Reddit's ranking algorithm, and peer-review in academia work — many independent judges, aggregated intelligently.
The Elo Rating System
To turn pairwise wins and losses into a continuous ranking, PitchCompare uses the Elo rating system — invented by physicist Arpad Elo and adopted by FIDE (the World Chess Federation) in 1970. It is still used today to rank chess players, football teams, and video-game competitors worldwide.
Every pitch starts with a rating of 1 000. After each comparison, points are transferred from the loser to the winner. The amount transferred depends on the expected outcome: beating a highly-rated pitch earns more points than beating a low-rated one.
Step 1 — Expected score
Where RA and RB are the current ratings of pitch A and pitch B. EA is the probability (0–1) that pitch A wins. A 400-point gap gives the stronger pitch a 10× odds advantage.
Step 2 — Update rating
SA is the actual result (1 for a win, 0 for a loss). K = 32 is the sensitivity factor — the maximum points that can change hands in a single comparison. The rating converges quickly as more comparisons are recorded.
Student Guide
No account needed. You only need the Room Code your professor shared and your university email address.
Join with your Room Code
On the homepage, type the Room Code your professor gave you (e.g. MKTG42) and press Join Pitch Room. You will be taken directly to the voting screen.
Enter your email
Enter your university email address. This is used only to track your individual assignment queue — it is never shared publicly.
Evaluate pairs — A vs. B
You will be shown two pitches side by side. Watch both videos and click the one you think is the stronger pitch. There are no trick questions: go with your honest judgment. Your own pitch will never appear in your queue — the system detects your authorship and filters it out automatically, eliminating self-serving bias.
Professor Guide
Sign in at the Professor Portal to create and manage Pitch Rooms. Each room is independent — students, pitches, assignments, and votes are all scoped to a single room.
1. Create Room
A unique Room Code is generated automatically.
2. Upload Roster
Import students via students.csv.
3. Upload Pitches
Import videos via pitches.csv.
4. Generate Pairs
The system builds balanced comparison assignments.
students.csv
Upload the class roster. The system uses email addresses to match students to their own pitches and to track their assignment progress.
| Column | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Required | Student's full name (e.g. Jane Smith) |
| Required | University email address — must match the email the student uses to log in |
Jane Smith,jsmith@university.edu
John Doe,jdoe@university.edu
pitches.csv
Upload the pitch videos. YouTube links are automatically normalised — paste regular watch links, short links (youtu.be/…), or Shorts links interchangeably.
| Column | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| title | Required | Display name for the pitch (e.g. "Team Alpha – GreenBrew") |
| url | Required | Any YouTube URL format: watch?v=, youtu.be/, or /shorts/ |
| author_emails | Optional | Semicolon-separated emails of team members (commas also accepted). Used to filter pitches from their authors' queues. |
Habit Technology Pivot,https://youtu.be/abc123xyz,alice@uni.edu; bob@uni.edu
NovaMed AI Diagnostic,https://youtu.be/xxxxxxxxxxx,charlie@uni.edu
Download Templates
Open these in Excel or Google Sheets, add your data, and save as a .csv file before uploading to your Room Dashboard.
- The templates above include the exact column headers required by the system.
- Set Comparisons per student to 5–8 for classes of 20–40 students.
- Re-generate assignments if you add pitches after the initial upload.
- Use Reset Room to clear all data and start fresh without deleting the room.
Experience the Student View
This is the exact interface your students will see. Pick the stronger pitch and click Submit — no data is saved.
Student Voting
Hi Demo User — watch both pitches, then choose the stronger one.
GreenBrew Co. — Sustainable Coffee Subscription
NovaMed — AI-Powered Diagnostic Tool
Requires an invite code from your institution.
Video Hosting Guide
How to upload and share your pitch so it embeds correctly.
For Students — Uploading Your Pitch
Upload to YouTube
Sign in to youtube.com, click the camera icon (＋ Create) in the top right, and select Upload video. Add your title and description, then proceed to the Visibility step before publishing.
Set Visibility to Unlisted — this is crucial
In the Visibility step choose Unlisted. This means anyone with the link can watch, but the video won't appear in search results or on your channel.
Private
Will not embed — only you can see it.
Unlisted
Embeds correctly. Viewable only via link.
Public
Works, but unnecessary for a class submission.
Select “No, it's not made for kids”
YouTube asks whether your video is made for children. Always select No, it's not made for kids. Videos marked as children's content have embedding and autoplay disabled by YouTube, which will prevent the video from loading inside PitchCompare.
Copy the Share link and send it to your professor
Once the video finishes processing, click the Share button under the video. Copy the short link — it will look like:
Any YouTube link format works — short links, full watch links, and Shorts links are all accepted by PitchCompare.
For Professors — Verifying Links
The Incognito Test
Before uploading a student's link to PitchCompare, paste it into a Private / Incognito browser tab. Because Incognito has no stored login or cookies, it replicates the exact conditions under which the embedded player runs. If the video plays there, it will embed correctly in PitchCompare. If YouTube shows a login prompt or an error, the student needs to re-check their visibility setting.
Copyright & Attribution
PitchCompare — including its source code, design, pedagogical framework, and documentation — is the original work of Matthew D. Regele.
© 2026 Matthew D. Regele. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for non-commercial academic use with proper attribution. Any course, publication, or presentation that references or builds upon this tool must credit the author as follows:
Regele, M. D. (2026). PitchCompare: Pairwise Elo evaluation for student pitches. Retrieved from pitchcompare.app
Commercial use, redistribution, or creation of derivative works requires express written permission from the author. For inquiries, contact the author directly.
Ready to get started?
Students join with a Room Code. Professors sign in to the portal.