Despite the growing body of research on college students' online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how individual students perceive and experience emergency remote teaching in China. To fill this gap, this study seeks to explore college students' perceptions of emergency remote teaching as well as the factors deemed favourable and unfavourable to online learning. This study, adopting a photo elicitation method, investigated four college students' online learning experiences in an emergency remote instruction context. Our study revealed that students went through three stages of online learning and their perceptions of emergency remote teaching changed from one stage to another. Additionally, student-content interaction, strong teacher support and a high-level of digital inclusion were three factors that facilitated effective online learning, whereas lack of interaction with teachers and peers and dormitory confinement were two factors perceived as hindrance. The study explored possible explanations of the findings and made pedagogical recommendations to foster online learning success. The study bears significance for teachers and administrators practicing technology-supported teaching activities amid and beyond the pandemic.