ABSTRACT The current investigation deepens our knowledge of emergency remote teaching’s (ERT’s) impact on tertiary-level media production courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on the accounts of instructors of media production courses to identify the repercussions of ERT on the teaching of such courses. We also unearth strategies used by instructors during pandemic ERT as they confronted disruptions to the delivery of their curricula. We gathered qualitative data using semi-structured interviews and conducted a thematic analysis. In doing so, this study reveals pedagogical, sociopsychological and other tensions arising from the sudden shift in teaching media production courses in a physical classroom to a virtual space. The findings identify an array of strategies employed during ERT to ameliorate these tensions. This study’s insights provoke a discussion about integrating disaster response and crisis management as part of curriculum design and educational planning for media education in higher education institutions.