Before Covid-19 struck, some in education were ambivalent and even dubious about the value of remote and digital learning, seeing it perhaps as the thin end of a wedge in which computers replace teachers and educators.

However, the value of ”blended learning” - the combination of home and school-based learning which will become the norm after the summer - is demonstrated amply by e-Sgoil (e-School), the remote teaching ecosystem for pupils in rural communities scattered across Scotland’s Western Isles (including Barra, pictured).

Uptake by pupils - often without prompting from their own teachers - has been remarkable.

Coronavirus: The biggest curriculum challenge of the century?

Survey: Families ‘desperate’ for live teaching

WATCH: ‘How we reopened our school in Hong Kong’

E-Sgoil’s most recent initiative is fully subscribed; so, too, is a parallel programme of professional development for teachers. While parents were being bombarded with websites that could help, these partners in e-Sgoil recognised the need for learner structure, within a timetabled, real-time teaching experience.

Coronavirus: How schools can embrace online learning

From a standing start and at very little additional costs, a new school was created for Scotland, and was oversubscribed in some classes within a week. By 6 May, 15,364 young learners aged 5 to 18, from all 32 local authorities in Scotland, had been involved in this new school; almost 500 were on a waiting list, and just over 300 teachers were enrolled for professional development.

There are four lessons can we draw from examples like e-Sgoil:

1. Education systems with an embedded digital culture make the transition more smoothly

It’s less effective where the transition from traditional learning is an emergency measure. Other examples of good practice, aside from e-Sgoil, include Plan Ceibal in Uruguay.

2. There is no need to spend time and effort developing bespoke content and platforms

High-quality educational resources are widely available on digital and broadcast channels such as BBC Bitesize. Excellent virtual learning tools such as Moodle, Padlet and Google Classroom are easy to adapt to local context and curriculum, and connectivity solutions can always be found and need not be digital, as examples in countries such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan show.

3. Partnership is crucial

See, for example, the Scottish government’s commitment to e-Sgoil. This helps free e-Sgoil’s small staff team to focus their energy on developing the teaching methods and equipping teachers and pupils with the skills needed to operate in a remote-learning environment. While some sources highlight concerns, e-Sgoil has identified some key points of guidance for effective remote teaching.

4. Good management and timetable coordination are essential

Teachers operating in the “new normal” have commented on how the balance of their workload has changed and on the importance of effective communication with parents and pupils, especially in areas of high deprivation and when supporting the most vulnerable pupils. There are opportunities for efficiency, though, by ensuring that pupils all use the same online platform. For example, use of Glow (Scotland’s national digital learning platform) was found to be patchy across Scotland, and this had to be addressed for pupils outside the Western Isles accessing e-Sgoil. Coordinated timetabling is essential for remote teaching across multiple schools, as is technical back-up in the first few course lessons, when human error can have a damaging impact on the learning experience.

Traditional education systems have evolved over decades, if not centuries, and are generally poor at coping with emergencies. It is very likely that in many global educational systems the “new normal” will be around for many months - and one positive legacy of Covid-19 could be an acceptance of a new form of learning that is less wedded to the physical classroom.

*This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared as a blog post.

Bruce Robertson is a former director of education and a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Martin Finnigan is director of Caledonian Economics, international consultants who advise on long-term strategic planning