I am a fan of online education. There are obvious advantages to online education: people can attend schools that are geographically distant, they can take classes at a pace and schedule convenient for them, universities can control and standardize course content, professors can be absent, etc. Of course, there are also weaknesses of online education versus traditional education models.

Many traditional classes are not very creative; students sit in chairs and take notes while professors lecture. Occasionally some students (often just a small subset of the class) may ask questions or offer comments. The students read from textbooks outside of class, take tests, and may have other assignments to turn in. Certainly none of this is lost in a quality online program.

In the school where I taught online, the lectures were recorded on video, and notes were provided; these resources were available as many times as the students desired, whenever they desired them. ALL students were graded on their course participation, meaning everyone was motivated to engage in the discussions (e.g. make forum posts). Books were mailed to the students, tests were administered online, etc.

Many have seen "networking" as a weakness of online courses, but I disagree. Just because we have a new medium of communication (the Internet) that does not mean meaningful, personal communication does not take place. In the past people communicated intimately via letters, then by telephone; now we use the Internet. I personally know a dozen couples who met and got to know each other on the Internet enough to meet in RL and eventually marry. Why shouldn't relationships formed online be valuable and helpful later in life? I have RL friends I met through online BBS or forums, and often they are of a higher "quality" than ones I first meet face-to-face. Why? Face-to-face, my meetings are often random; I have no control over who I'll meet. On the Internet, though, I've become acquainted with authors of books or articles I've enjoyed, leaders of institutions I've contacted, etc.

Online education (a form of distance education) may not be the best choice for everybody, but it's definitely "good."