PurposeThe Covid-19 pandemic closed most educational institutions covering all world and academic calendars are threatened. In this situation keeping academic activities live, most institutions adopted learning via online platforms. However, the question about online learning effectiveness especially in developing countries like South Africa is still not clearly or evidently recognized, as in developing countries due to technical constraints of availability of bandwidth and device suitability is a serious challenge. The authors focus is to obtain the perception and insights of business and commerce students towards online learning education in order to improve an effective online learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThe research study is based on an online survey of 415 students. The research study also explored a mixed-method and numerous explanatory attributes which helped the authors to discuss the results.FindingsResults find out that 73 percent of students were ready to manage online learning and the majority of them prefer curriculum learning through smartphones during this pandemic. Some of the students have an attractive opinion due to the convenience and flexibility of online learning while some students in rural areas face many challenges in online learning due to the connectivity of broadband.Research limitations/implicationsResearch has been uniquely limited to students of tertiary level and vocational training in the field of commerce across some educational institutions from South Africa. Some students were not cooperative in providing answers on time as per the questionnaire.Practical implicationsThe insights of this research study will be very helpful in curriculum designing for the next academic session.Social implicationsIts findings will help to improve the online learning method so that it can be socially inclusive to all the students no matter their condition on data bundle accessibility background and location.Originality/valueOne of the few case studies done during this pandemic era and its findings will help understand how students perceive online learning in order to improve the learning environment.