The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 greatly impacted all forms of social activities globally, including traditional classroom activities across all levels of instruction (kindergarten to universities). While online and blended learning (including MOOCs) have been an active subject of research and discourse during the pre-pandemic days, onset of the pandemic created an immediacy to such means of course delivery better than any administrator or teaching committee could have. This created both a gap and tension in terms of successful and engaging content delivery, where traditional modes of synchronous content delivery were forced online. This situation provided educators with an opportunity to explore the merits and weaknesses of online learning. Thus, this article seeks to outline the challenges and paradigm shifts involved in such synchronous online learning as a replacement for traditional classroom learning, following our experience at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) of conducting a full 13-week online physics course between May to August 2020. At the same time, we reflect on the merits brought about by the availability of such technologies that can potentially be translated back to the physical physics classroom.