Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread quickly around the globe. COVID-19 has affected the education sector due to partial or complete lockdowns that were implemented throughout the world between 2019 and 2022. This pandemic severely affected the education sectors in developing countries such as Pakistan. All the educational institutions in Pakistan turned to online education. However, the education sector lacked the teaching experts, digital experts, the Internet of Things (IoT), and resources needed for online education. The shift from traditional to online education has created many challenges for developing countries during a pandemic such as COVID-19, for example, access to the IoT. This paper aims to introduce the factor model (F model), which will provide guidelines for the government and universities for minimizing the deficiencies related to online education. The F-model will identify all the factors that affect the performance and guide the user about their importance. This will allow the user to resolve that issue and improve the performance of their department or institution. Thus, the F model will benefit the education sector by mitigating the challenges related to online education. The F model is not only confined to online education but can be operated in the fields of science and industry for data extraction and the calculation of results. First, the data is collected physically and online through a student survey related to the challenges of online education during a pandemic. The data extraction and the calculation of the results are carried out using the F model. The results of the survey are alarming and the government has a lot of work to do to improve online education using the IoT. According to the F model, the government should take serious action to improve the performance of students, teachers, and all education sectors not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but also for possible future pandemics.