Emergency Remote Teaching During the Crisis Situations. Comparative Perspective of Ukraine and Poland

The comparison of emergency remote teaching at universities during the COVID-19 pandemic with other crisis circumstances has not yet been clarified. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to reconstruct and explore students' educational experiences during emergency remote teaching in two crisis situations (i.e., the global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine). The aim was also to discover the main challenges of emergency remote teaching and implemented solutions for improvement remote education in the future. The study was conducted in Ukraine and Poland. It included 248 students. The research used online survey questionnaires as a method for data collection. The findings are summarized as follows: 1) remote education can significantly increase access to learning in pressing circumstances, 2) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency remote teaching was dominant in both countries, 3) the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic was a good preparation for emergency remote teaching at universities in Ukraine during the war in terms of the academic infrastructure and new technologies, development of methodological competences of teachers, and digital competences of teachers and students, 4) new completely different challenges have emerged during the war compared to the health crisis (i.e. no electricity, blackouts, no or unstable Internet connection, interruptions of classes caused by bomb alarms and evacuations), 5) students confronted with several types of barriers to learning (organizational, technical and technological, social, emotional, competence) in the crisis circumstances, 6) despite these barriers students expressed a positive view of online learning, 7) emergency remote teaching increased students' self-learning and independence. The results can be used to improve education during the emergency circumstances. Furthermore, presented study can serve as a basis for future research for scholars of different scientific backgrounds.