Today’s online learning presents unprecedented challenges to most university students, including the first-year students of the English Language Education Master’s Program (ELEMP). Academically speaking, graduate students are expected to reach the Indonesian National Framework of Competencies #8, whose foci include capabilities to problematize empirical data so as to elaborate on concepts and inter- and multidisciplinary theories. On the one hand, the utilization of information technology to facilitate learning has brought significant contributions to the growth of students’ learning. On the other hand, students may not necessarily be prepared to anticipate independent learning required throughout this online learning. Drawing on  Biggs’ (1982) SOLO Taxonomy on understanding, this paper is set to portray how 17 graduate students of the ELEMP demonstrated different levels of understanding within this online learning context.