Is Online Learning Better? Maybe Not—At Least, Not at First

>Overall, what this study points to is that even as many colleges, both for-profit and nonprofit, are boasting online courses that can give students increased flexibility, the outcomes aren’t matching up with face-to-face courses, especially during those students’ first semesters.

Then again, maybe that is exactly what the study is showing. The outcome statistics in the paper could easily be interpreted as increasing the students' flexibility - they feel more comfortable taking courses they want or need without feeling as much need to continue on to graduate. There is too little information provided to decide for or against either interpretation.