Due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in China, a large number of Chinese students resorted to online learning resources. The increasingly widespread online education enables the investigation of public opinion about this large-scale untraditional mode of learning during this critical period. Sina Weibo Microblogs (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) related to online education were collected in three distinctive phases: from July 01, 2019 to January 09, 2020 (pre-pandemic); from January 10, 2020 to April 30, 2020 (amid-pandemic); and from May 01, 2020 to Nov 30, 2020 (post-pandemic), respectively. The aim was to obtain broad insight into how online learning was viewed by the public in the Chinese educational landscape. The public opinion during these three periods were analysed and compared. The findings facilitated a better understanding of what the Chinese public perceived about this online learning mode in becoming the dominant channel for teaching and learning during critical periods.