Heriot-Watt University's SCHOLAR programme visited ten schools as part of a national tour which aims to give pupils and teachers an interactive experience of how learning takes place anywhere and at any time.
To promote the advantages of the programme, the SCHOLAR team decided to travel around Scotland in a bespoke designed digi-bus.
Over 1,600 pupils and teachers received a visit from the SCHOLAR bus, a specially-liveried, double-decker bus, over one week in a tour spanning from South Ayrshire to Dundee.
SCHOLAR, the online learning resource developed by Heriot-Watt University is already available to every senior school pupil in Scotland. The programme allows schools to provide a resource for independent learning in line with Curriculum for Excellence.
The digi-bus offers a high-tech and visually stimulating way of letting senior pupils and their teachers €˜play' with information and technology
The web materials, written specifically for the SQA curriculum, can be accessed in the classroom, learning centres or at home - essentially anywhere.
Teachers aboard the bus see how the SCHOLAR learning resources dovetail with their curriculum and how they can use the facility to set and assess home-working and extra tuition for pupils with an appetite to extend their learning beyond the classroom environment.
SCHOLAR also allows schools to offer subjects for which they have no full-time teacher, and pupils to study for exams, in a tutored environment, which they might not otherwise be able to do.
Professor Phillip John, Senior Dean of Heriot-Watt University and Executive Chair of SCHOLAR said, "The whole learning environment has been changed by the potential of online learning and teaching but it's almost gone full-circle that our feedback suggested senior pupils would value engaging with SCHOLAR in ways they could touch and feel - even climb aboard.
"The digi-bus offers a high-tech and visually stimulating way of letting senior pupils and their teachers €˜play' with information and technology; to explore its full potential and to see how it can help them get the best education from among the variety of resources available during school hours and beyond."