While much is discussed of the challenges that educators and their institutions have been facing during COVID-19, there is little reported about how students have been coping with the challenges. In this short piece, we present preliminary data on university students’ perceptions of online learning and teaching during the pandemic. Our findings from a student course satisfaction survey, conducted in two universities during the 2020 summer term (June through August), reveal that students have been more resilient than is often assumed. In light of these findings as well as the reflections of authors in a previous issue of Distance Education, we will discuss some important implications for distance education scholarship.