The COVID-19 pandemic represented an extraordinary public health emergency, leading to the most profound disruption to education systems in modern history. As higher education institutions expand their post-pandemic online course catalogs, it is necessary first to explore the student outcomes and student perceptions of learning related to the pandemic. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to assess the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and students' perceptions of online learning. The purpose of the study was to examine what, if any, trends in undergraduate student course grades and student perceptions of the instruction occurred coincident with the implementation of emergency remote teaching during the pandemic. Chaos theory provided the basis by which the study was undertaken, highlighting a non-linear perspective, or butterfly effect of the pandemic changes such as the sudden shift to emergency remote teaching in higher education systems. The quantitative subsection of the study used secondary data, which included undergraduate student grade distributions and student evaluation of teaching (SET) scores from nine social science courses taught from spring 2018 to fall 2022 semesters at one public university. The qualitative subsection of the study analyzed 20 time point paired (i.e., ten pre-pandemic and ten post-pandemic) course syllabi from 10 instructors teaching five social science courses during the spring 2018 through fall 2022 semesters. The study's results aligned with previous research findings of slightly positive trends in grades (averages) and mixed positive and negative trends in student evaluation of teaching scores (averages) over the spring 2018 to fall 2022 semesters. Additionally, the document review suggested instructor post-pandemic syllabi changes to policies were mostly beneficial to students. These findings suggested that emergency remote teaching (ERT) was an effective strategy for ensuring course continuity during times of crisis. Yet, there is considerable potential for departments to enhance course quality and streamline syllabus policies in future implementations. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]