According to UNESCO (2020), the COVID-19 impact on education is global. There were more than 1.5 billion learners and students worldwide, from children in early childhood education to students at tertiary education affected by the global pandemic, which led most schools and universities to pivot to online classes. Online teaching and learning became the primary model for teaching, and we are calling this learning Emergency Remote Education (ERE) (Bozkurt et al., 2020). Previous studies have accumulated rich theories in both face-to-face (F2F) and online. However, the theoretical underpinnings of educational theory are weak relative to the global scale of practical applications that have occurred in online education. Therefore, there is a great need in the academic community for research on differences in student engagement in the context of ERE. Using the Critical Incident Technique, this study interviewed ten students in a Master of Education Program. The analysis of interviews produced three main themes: 1) teaching practice; 2) learning behavior; and 3) supportive environment. The findings indicated that there were differences in student engagement between F2F and ERE, and the main reasons causing differences were course design and organization, student-faculty interaction, learning with peers, and social interaction. Based on the literature and findings, the results were discussed, and future study areas were recommended.
