Transition to online higher education during COVID-19 pandemic: turmoil and way forward to developing country of South Asia-Nepal

Purpose Every day thousands of academic institutes suspend their classes and students are staying in their home maintaining social distancing due to the fear of COVID-19 pandemic and Nepal is no exception. Realizing these facts, this study aims to explore the factors for the effectiveness of online mode of classes to on-class course-based students and analyzes the perception of faculties and students toward online mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach It is based on exploratory research design, following mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative procedure. To build a rich understanding of the phenomenon, three-stage data collection procedure: preliminary interview, structural survey and validation were used. Findings This study revealed triplet factors: infrastructure, student and teacher as antecedents of effectiveness of online classes during a pandemic. Technological support, infrastructure availability, faculty and students' perception have a significant relationship for the effectiveness of the online mode of the teaching-learning process. Students faced anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a higher willingness to learn reduces the level of anxiety. Originality/value This study significantly contributes to the future management of higher education and digs the future path of online and on-class teaching-learning practices.