Under the shadow of Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand how students have coped with online teaching and learning when university campuses have been closed throughout India for over a year. This paper draws on a larger India-wide survey, conducted in collaboration with the Students Experience in the Research University (SERU) consortium in the US and the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) in India. Our analysis in this paper is also informed by the conceptual framework and findings from a pilot study conducted by us at a private multidisciplinary university in India. The pilot study specifically sought to understand students’ learning experiences with the sudden digital transition during Spring 2020, while the larger India-wide survey conducted during Spring 2021 sought to gain a more holistic understanding of student experience in the middle of the pandemic across several research universities in India. However, it should be noted that the digital divide within India is very wide. There is a significant imbalance in terms of resource allocation among the student population in urban and rural India. The resource divide is also significant between those who study in public and private institutions. Hence, this paper is based on data only from those students who were able to participate in online surveys. The data has been analysed following Community of Inquiry (CoI) process-oriented model of the online learning experience. The findings suggest that despite the commendable efforts by the teachers, the students still did not find online teaching and learning as engaging as real classroom experience. This chapter, therefore, adds to the literature on the problem of Open Crisis Learning (OCL), as against a well-structured Open Distance Learning (ODL).