The summer semester had just begun at Austrian universities when on March 11th, Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The first confirmed Covid-19 case in the German-speaking realm was registered on January 27th, 2020 in Germany, and on February 25th in Austria. The Covid-19 disease was identified for the first time at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, in the People’s Republic of China ( Robert Koch Institute, 2020). It seems that lecturers were only able to use these resources when the technological resources were available and when the lecturers were confident in their technical abilities. In comparison, assessments of actual personal resources, skills in the use of digital technologies, teaching experience, and temporal resources were important but contributed less to satisfaction than challenge appraisals. Together with the perception of a low threat potential, challenge appraisals contributed strongest to satisfaction. Lecturers were mostly satisfied with their teaching activities. Predictor variables were the lecturers’ appraisals of challenge and threat, perceived support by the university and sense of belonging to the university, temporal resources, proficiency in using digital technologies, length of teaching experience, and gender.

A multiple regression with three criterion variables describing university lecturers’ perceived satisfaction with distance teaching was carried out.

It was investigated to which degree these sources of influence could contribute to the lecturers’ satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with their teaching processes. The present survey focused on four possible sources of influence: internal assessments of the situation determining it to be threatening and/or challenging, personal resources, attitudes, and support by the organization. However, how well a person adjusts to a novel situation is also influenced by personal and environmental resources which help to overcome the situation. These appraisals are important for approaching a situation or shying away from it. The survey focuses on the lecturers’ appraisals of the novel situation as challenging or threatful. How did lecturers handle the situation? Were they still able to turn the situation into a positive one? What were the main obstacles with this difficult situation, and where there conditions which helped them to overcome the new challenges? These are research questions of the present survey with a sample of 1,152 lecturers at universities in Austria and Germany. Thus, in March 2020, all universities closed their campuses, switching to distance learning within the span of about a single day. The summer semester had just begun at Austrian and German universities when Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.

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