The novel COVID-19 demanded sudden migration to digital education. Higher Education Institutions mobilised enormous resources to overcome the COVID-19-related lockdown in spring 2020 and ensure the continuation of education (Crawford et al., 2020). This research examines how lecturers have perceived the switch from conventional to online teaching. We further examine the use of digital tools for online teaching during the lockdown and compare it to the situation before. Experience, attitude, and self-efficacy facilitate the use of educational technology for online teaching (Kagima & Hausafus, 2020; Buchanan, et al., 2013). Due to the first COVID-19 lockdown, online teaching became mandatory for university teachers. This study examined how perceived online teaching self-efficacy, experience in and attitude towards educational technology affect the actual integration of educational technology for emergency remote teaching (ERT). During the first COVID-19-related lockdown in spring 2020 an online survey at five universities in four European countries has been conducted as part of the cross-cultural CRTS-Study (coronavirus-related teaching situation). In total, 810 lecturers participated in this survey. The questionnaire included items relating to use of educational technology before and during the lockdown, a scale assessing online teaching self-efficacy (alpha=.83-.91) with eight modified items from existing scales (Gosselin, 2009; Prieto, 2006), and a one-item measurement of lecturers’ attitude(s) towards use of educational technology. First results show that lecturers at four out of five universities used LMS significantly more often during the COVID-19 lockdown than before. At none of the universities did lecturers integrate educational videos more frequently during lockdown, although some began to produce their own videos for online teaching (at three out of five universities). Finally, lecturers at all participating universities used web-conference tools substantially more often. Further analysis has revealed that experience, attitude, and online teaching self-efficacy were positive predictors of educational technology use. The model explained more variance for asynchronous tools than for synchronous web-conferencing and for the latter, attitude toward digital tools was no longer a significant predictor. This study found that lecturers could successfully integrate new educational technology or extend previous usage of digital tools for ERT. Furthermore, it became apparent that previous experience and a positive attitude towards digital tools as well as their self-efficacy in online teaching facilitated the switch to online teaching. In the ongoing digitalisation process, it is crucial to strengthen the digital maturity of the university by better preparing lecturers for online teaching.

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