To investigate how physics students perceived the sudden shift to online learning at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with university students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and data from N ¼ 578 physics students from five universities in Germany, Austria, and Croatia were gathered. In this paper, we report how students perceived synchronous and asynchronous physics lessons, how their perception correlates with their self-organization skills, which activities and teaching methods were perceived as helpful, and what are the implications for future physics courses. The most common advantages of synchronous course elements reported by students were the possibility to immediately ask questions, the feeling of community and interaction with other students, and the defined daily structure, whereas the most common advantages of asynchronous course elements reported were flexible time management and the possibility to watch videos at their own pace. The data indicate a correlation between preference for synchronous courses and their general self-organization, so instructors should be aware of this connection when planning future courses. Face-to-face lectures at university were perceived as the most helpful course element, followed by the recorded lectures from the instructor and the group work on the assignments, projects, and problems with other students. Furthermore, our results suggest that most students would in the future like to preserve the upload of learning materials and recorded video of the lectures in addition to classroom lectures. Overall, the results of this study suggest that both synchronous and asynchronous course elements should be combined in future online and in-person physics courses.