Rapid technological advancement has changed the landscape of design education to be integrated with educational technology, and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated its transition to online education. Pedagogical engagement with online education is unavoidable to ensure that the transition is successful when the situation ends. Yet, many prior studies on online design education remain focused on technical and administrative uses of digital technologies. In this article, "meta-connective pedagogy" is introduced to enable educators and researchers critically to engage with pedagogical concerns emerging from the connective nature of the digitally networked world. Meta-connective pedagogy is to focus on "we are always-being-connected" and argue that authentic learning and teaching are determined by diverse forms of pre-existing connectivity. This article consists of four parts. First, it is argued that studio-based learning has developed a 'resistant' stance towards online education, which justifies the omission of understanding connective features from its discourses. Second, four up-to-date studies on online design education are critically reviewed in a comparative manner, as their views are split into technical and pedagogical aspects. Third, meta-connective pedagogy is introduced to address why and how connectivity becomes an emerging pedagogical concern for online education. Fourth and last, a schematic form of meta-connective design education is articulated, and new roles and responsibilities of educators are addressed. Overall, it is argued that the whole concept of design education is subverted towards connectivity that is inclusive of social components of traditional design studios in a more efficient way.