diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/exercises.js b/app/assets/javascripts/exercises.js
index e6773f40..a0e2e193 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/exercises.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/exercises.js
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ $(function() {
      // new MarkdownEditor('#exercise_instructions');
       new MarkdownEditor('#exercise_description');
       // todo: add an ace editor for each file
+      new PagedownEditor('#exercise_description');
 
       enableInlineFileCreation();
       inferFileAttributes();
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/markdown_editor.js b/app/assets/javascripts/markdown_editor.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 8923a6ca..00000000
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/markdown_editor.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-(function() {
-    var ACE_FILES_PATH = '/assets/ace/';
-
-    converter = Markdown.getSanitizingConverter()
-    editor    = new Markdown.Editor converter
-
-    editor.run();
-    editor.refreshPreview()
-
-    window.MarkdownEditor = function(selector) {
-        ace.config.set('modePath', ACE_FILES_PATH);
-        var editor = ace.edit($(selector).next()[0]);
-        editor.on('change', function() {
-            $(selector).val(editor.getValue());
-        });
-        editor.setShowPrintMargin(false);
-        var session = editor.getSession();
-        session.setMode('markdown');
-        session.setUseWrapMode(true);
-        session.setValue($(selector).val());
-    };
-})();
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/pagedown.js b/app/assets/javascripts/pagedown.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7c602194
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/pagedown.js
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+(function() {
+    var ACE_FILES_PATH = '/assets/ace/';
+
+    window.PagedownEditor = function(selector) {
+        var converter = Markdown.getSanitizingConverter();
+        var editor    = new Markdown.Editor( converter );
+
+        editor.run();
+
+    };
+})();
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/views/exercises/_form.html.slim b/app/views/exercises/_form.html.slim
index 718dec83..a91f301c 100644
--- a/app/views/exercises/_form.html.slim
+++ b/app/views/exercises/_form.html.slim
@@ -9,12 +9,7 @@
   .form-group
     = f.label(:description)
     = f.hidden_field(:description)
-    /.form-control.markdown
-    .wmd-panel
-      #wmd-button-bar
-      textarea#wmd-input
-      #wmd-preview
-    = f.pagedown_editor :description, {skip_preview: false, panel_class: 'wmd-panel', button_bar_id: 'wmd-button-bar', button_bar_class: '', editor_id: 'wmd-input', editor_class: 'wmd-input', preview_id: 'wmd-preview', preview_class: '', }
+    .form-control.markdown
   /.form-group
     = f.label(:description)
     = f.hidden_field(:description)
diff --git a/config/application.rb b/config/application.rb
index dbe137d7..c1438aaa 100644
--- a/config/application.rb
+++ b/config/application.rb
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ module CodeOcean
     # Set Time.zone default to the specified zone and make Active Record auto-convert to this zone.
     # Run "rake -D time" for a list of tasks for finding time zone names. Default is UTC.
     config.time_zone = 'Berlin'
-    config.assets.precompile += %w( markdown-buttons.png )
   
     # The default locale is :en and all translations from config/locales/*.rb,yml are auto loaded.
     # config.i18n.load_path += Dir[Rails.root.join('my', 'locales', '*.{rb,yml}').to_s]