Elementary school students go back to school in Changning district, Shanghai, on Sept 1, 2020. (Photo: Sina Weibo)

The 2020 autumn semester for elementary, middle and high schools in Shanghai reopened on Tuesday.

Having proven to be a useful tool during the epidemic, online courses will continue to be provided to students alongside on-campus education, according to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.

The commission said that the recording of online lessons for students in Grade 1 to 12 will continue so as to build a complete set of digital resources that can be used in place of on-site lessons at any time.

"The purpose of online courses is to let students who cannot return to campus, either due to the epidemic or other reasons, to continue with their education," said Li Hong, deputy director of Xuhui Institute of Education Shanghai.

"From another perspective, these courses are also a good resource for our teachers' professional development. This batch of online courses can be used as a case study in teacher training and classroom teaching research so as to benefit more teachers," she added.

According to the commission, more than 5,000 high-quality online education video courses covering all basic subjects in schools have been produced by the end of the spring semester in 2020.