University teachers and crisis e-learning Results of a Polish pilot study on: attitudes towards e-learning, experiences with e-learning and anticipation of using e-learning solutions after the pandemic Łukasz Tomczyk Institute of Educational Studies Pedagogical University of Cracow Cracow, Poland lukasz.tomczyk@up.krakow.pl Nataliia Demeshkant Institute of Educational Studies Pedagogical University of Cracow Cracow, Poland nataliia.demeshkant@up.krakow.pl Katarzyna Potyrała Institute of Educational Studies Pedagogical University of Cracow Cracow, Poland katarzyna.potyrala@up.krakow.pl Karolina Czerwiec Institute of Educational Studies Pedagogical University of Cracow Cracow, Poland karolina.czerwiec@up.krakow.pl Abstract - The aim of the research was to show the conditions related to crisis e-learning in Poland from the perspective of the experiences of university teachers. The research was carried out by means of online questionnaire among 94 employees of the biggest Polish state pedagogical university. The survey used scales measuring attitude towards e-learning, anticipation of e- learning use after the end of the pandemic, and experience with e-learning before switching to crisis e-learning. The research was conducted between April and November 2020 and the quantitative findings are as follows: 1) The vast majority of academic teachers positively assess the opportunities arising from e-learning; 2) Two thirds of respondents indicate that blended learning is the most effective solution; 3) Almost two-thirds of the respondents state that e-learning allows all of the established learning objectives to be achieved; 4) Evaluation of e-learning is not a homogeneous phenomenon, so teachers differentiate between elements related to assessing the value of e-learning; 5) The only feature that differentiates the effectiveness of the assessment of e-learning is seniority (weak correlation); 6) More than two-thirds of respondents had no experience with e-learning before the outbreak of the pandemic; 7) Evaluation of the properties of crisis e-learning has an impact on the use of e- learning-based solutions after the pandemic. Keywords - e-learning; crisis e-learning; teachers; university; attitude; experience; Poland. I. INTRODUCTION The COVID pandemic triggered exponential changes in the lives of individuals as well as social groups. Much has changed since the epidemiological restrictions were introduced. Dynamic and unprecedented transformations can also be observed in the education sector. Teaching, learning, socialisation, and education have changed dramatically in recent months, due to the fact that the vast majority of activities have moved into cyberspace. Higher education has also been affected by these changes. Colleges, academies, and universities have transformed the way knowledge is transmitted through the intensive, rapid implementation of e- learning platforms and related solutions, based on synchronous and asynchronous communication. Activities related to the transformation of learning environments are not new. Universities around the world have been seeking to implement e-learning for many years. For selected universities, the process of learning via the Internet is natural. There are model universities all over the world, where e-learning is a fully-fledged learning environment and offers the same or similar experience to face-to-face meetings between lecturers and students. However, Polish pedagogical universities were not fully prepared for the speed of the transformation brought about by the pandemic. From the many years of research conducted by the Polish scientific community focused on the topic of media application in education, it appears that universities before the outbreak of the pandemic appreciated the opportunities arising from e-learning; however, in most cases no decision had been made to move selected specializations into cyberspace [1] [2]. Paradoxically, despite the visible possibilities inherent in e-learning, this solution appeared to be an educational novelty. E-learning in Poland was used occasionally. The pandemic was a critical factor in the rapid implementation of solutions that academic teachers had previously encountered occasionally or within which they lacked knowledge and skills. The implementation of e-learning at Polish universities from the first quarter of 2020 was a phenomenon more similar to crisis e-learning than to the implementation of e-learning based on fully appropriate methodologies. At the end of the first quarter, lecturers and students were forced to move various forms of classes - lectures, exercises, and laboratories - to digital environments, with which they were not familiar. These were actions performed more on intuition than according to methodology. Academic teachers, who were not used to teaching in digital, unfamiliar environments, developed their own methodologies by trial and error, often with the support of universities (e.g. distance learning centres). With the passage of time, academic teachers transformed crisis e-learning into e-