On March 2020, the World Health organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Following the speed with which COVID spread to all parts of the world most governments around the world, including Kazakhstan, authorized unprecedented social containment measures to stem the tide. These measures among others required the temporary closure of educational institutions. The Caspian Public University had to switch for distance-learning to enable students to complete the 2019–2020 academic year. The unplanned, rapid, and uncertain duration of the approach presented challenges at all academic levels. This article discusses results of a survey to collect immediate data on how the rapid transition to distance learning impacted teachers and identify challenges and opportunities for further teaching.