This study aims to identify the factors that explain undergraduate students' adjustments to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 crisis. The participants were 390 undergraduate students from four academic colleges in Israel who responded to the role adjustment to online learning questionnaire and the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire. The quantitative findings showed low adjustment rates to ERT, moderate use of metacognitive strategies, and moderate environmental and personal distractions. Adjusting to ERT was related to gender, age, academic year, environmental and personal distractions, and metacognitive strategies. The findings highlight the different barriers that affected undergraduate students' adjustments to ERT during the first semester after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The rapid changes to teaching-learning educational platforms are challenging higher education institutes (HEIs) to improve their support for diverse students from different backgrounds and academic experiences.