ABSTRACT
This review paper examines the potential for online learning in COVID-19 and the path forward for establishing Higher Educations Institution (HEI). The critical topics identified included online learning during COVID-19, shifted to online delivery, strategy to enhance the HEI system, post-COVID-19 implication, and the plan forward. The different database searches identified keywords such as online learning during COVID-19;shifted to online delivery, strategy to enhance higher learning educational system;administration strategy;emergency distance/online education;post-COVID-19 implication, pandemic, endemic, and the plan of higher learning institutions on online learning were searched. The various repository identified more than 100 articles, of which 83 full-text articles were assessed covered in this paper. online learning has started in the early ‘90s, it still needs to be improved and embedded with effective instructional design (ID) to optimize the knowledge transferred. Moreover, the emergency changes during the COVID-19 force everyone to fully utilise technology effectively so learning would not be disrupted. Thus, some issues emerged from the literature: the internet bandwidth connection, the ineffective ID;inexperience of lecturers to adopt online learning;information disparity;and the complicated situation at home. The way forward suggests actions like online teaching arrangement;inexperience of lecturers to develop effective instructional design;the information disparity and the home complexity should be dispatched to ensure the online learning in HEI can benefit all. Hence knowledge can reach everyone effectively, even during the post-pandemic. The findings of this paper allow to assume that post-COVID-19 it might be worth reconsidering the format of online learning mechanisms and shift from conventional face-to-face learning to blended or even distance learning. Additionally, suggestions for further research of online education in tertiary institutions are also addressed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.