The University of Edinburgh has announced its "difficult decision" to continue with digital teaching and assessment for the rest of the academic semester.
The announcement applies to undergraduate students at the University, with a "small number of exceptions".
It follows the latest Scottish Government guidance, the University has said, but insists its intention remains to resume the hybrid teaching model for postgraduate taught students "as soon as we can do so".
Postgraduate Taught programmes will remain online until at least the end of February.
However, it does mean that students will not return to campus en masse until September at the earliest.
The University also confirmed that it currently has had a total of 23 active cases reported to them by students and staff.
It comes after Nicola Sturgeon announced that schools will remain closed for most pupils until at least the middle of February, but it remains a “priority” to reopen them as soon as possible.
The First Minister also said the government was looking to introduce routine coronavirus testing for both pupils and teachers when schools resume.
Meanwhile, dealing with parental expectations of home schooling has been a challenge for local authorities, inspectors have said.
Her Majesty’s Inspectors of education (HMIe) produced a report on learning from home in Scotland’s schools as a result of the most recent lockdown that was put in place earlier this month.
The 14-page report singles out how parents believe schooling should be done as a key issue for schools.
“(Councils) are finding parental expectation regarding both remote learning and in-school attendance challenging,” the inspectors said.
“Local authorities are acutely aware of the pressures and demands on families as lockdown continues.
READ MORE: Students: Lockdown restrictions spark demands for reduced fees and 'no detriment' policy
“For some, this may be related to unemployment or working from home. For other families, they may not feel confident in supporting their child’s learning at home.
“All this can combine to create unrealistic expectations of remote learning.
“The management of parental expectations is an ongoing issue that local authorities are taking steps to address through regular communication and awareness raising.”
The report also raises the issue of internet connectivity as a concern but said councils were “taking steps” to find ways around the issue where it is impacting learners.
“Digital connectivity is a challenge in a number of areas, and in particular the most remote and rural localities.
“Poor bandwidth and digital infrastructure, and unreliable connectivity for teachers and children and young people are limiting access to online approaches to remote learning.
“Where this is an issue, and where children and young people cannot access devices, local authorities are taking steps to ensure learners acquire resources to support learning at home.
“This includes delivering learning packs to children’s homes, providing a safe ‘collection point’ in school buildings and leaving resources for pick up locally.”
The report also praised schools in a number of areas, including in learning from and improving its digital offering compared to the first lockdown towards the end of the last academic year and the use of innovative techniques.
Education Secretary John Swinney said: “I am pleased that the report shows that local authorities have built on what they learned during the previous period of school closures, that schools are positively embracing remote schooling and are using innovative methods to deliver learning for their pupils, including virtual learning environments and virtual schools or academies.
“These are providing learners with the opportunity to access learning at times that best suit them and allow for reinforcement and extension of learning.
“The report also highlights key areas for improvement, which will be discussed constructively with our partners. Local authorities can also draw on the £45 million package that I announced earlier this month to support remote learning.
“Over the coming weeks, Her Majesty’s Inspectors will review what is working well based on information that is collected from varied sources, including engagement with schools.
“The next reports will focus on the experiences of schools; and parents, carers and learners who will be surveyed for their views this weekend by Education Scotland.
“I would encourage families to get involved and provide feedback, which help shape how remote learning is delivered.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here