Scottish schools’ experience during the Covid pandemic would help them to switch to remote learning quickly if called upon to do so again - but the level of preparedness varies around the country, according to a new report.
The Scottish government’s Readiness for Remote Learning Report, published today, also says that local authorities’ efforts to improve the digital skills of school staff and pupils are patchy, with varied levels of participation.
“The current level of readiness of a majority of local authorities, together with their schools, teachers and learners, is such that, if required to do so, they could all move to remote learning within a few days,” the report states.
“However, it would still take around a week before all local authorities, their schools, teachers and learners had moved to remote learning.”
Schools prepared for remote learning
The report is based on responses from 24 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. These responses showed that while councils are “offering staff training to improve their digital literacy and digital learning and teaching skills...participation levels vary across local authorities”.
High participation levels, with most or almost all staff taking part in training offered, were reported by just under half of the councils that responded.
A minority of councils said that less than half of staff had participated in training offered.
Almost all councils “agreed or strongly agreed” that their schools had “continued to develop and use digital technology and digital literacy skills to enhance learning and teaching”, although a few strongly disagreed with this statement.
Most councils had “set up a virtual offer for the delivery of national qualifications” and were “accessing support via the National e-Learning Offer (Nelo)”.
The most commonly cited part of Nelo being used was live study support via e-Sgoil, followed by recorded lessons via West OS and senior-phase resources. The least used were the resource collections.
All councils confirmed that they had ensured schools and teachers have access to a platform that could be used for remote learning if and when necessary. Survey responses identified a range of platforms, with Microsoft Teams most commonly cited, followed by Google Workspace tools.
Alongside these, local authorities and schools are using other platforms and third-party tools, such as Seesaw, Showbie, Satchel One, ClassDojo and Learning Journals. In some cases these are bought and funded by the local authorities, in others by individual schools.
Online platforms available to most pupils
Almost all councils that responded confirmed that they have ensured all pupils have access to a platform that could be used for remote learning if and when necessary.
In the few authorities where this was not the case, a common reason was that most pupils in that council do have access to Glow Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace but that this is not suitable for P1-P2s.
Most councils confirmed that they have ensured parents would have access to a platform that could be used to communicate during a period of remote learning. As well as Google or Teams, third-party platforms and tools such as Parent Portal, Groupcall, Just2easy or Seesaw were also cited.
Among the few council respondents that have not ensured that parents have access to a platform, data protection was a commonly cited factor.
Only a minority of councils reported that their staff have access to both a device and connectivity at home; most said staff have access to a device only. A few councils said that while connectivity is generally expected to be on staff own home networks, it can be provided if required.
A minority of survey respondents reported that staff were given access to neither a device nor connectivity. However, a few noted that, although staff do not have a dedicated device for home use, school laptops could be altered to allow them to be used at home, if required.
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