Some colleges like Global University, Concord Law School or the Holmes Institute offer courses only online. These schools do not have in-class instruction and absolutely no face-to-face relationships with the professors and instructors. These colleges often use generic material and texts that can be found anywhere in the country and allow its students the ease of doing coursework at their leisure. However, this kind of school requires total independence, so students who prefer teacher interaction and instruction would not do well in this environment.
Schools like DeVry College and University of Phoenix offer courses at campuses nationwide. However, their online courses are more popular with students. These online courses include mostly independent coursework with at-home examinations, essays and quizzes. The plus side to these kinds of colleges is that they allow students the opportunity to have more interaction with their professors, often giving students the opportunity to contact professors during office hours, which many online-only colleges do not have.
Distance education courses are often offered to students at most larger universities. These are courses that can be taken anywhere that has Internet access, but does often require on-campus testing or being able to turn in a hard copy of a paper directly to a professor. Students who travel a lot or have a hard time getting off work to get to a class will vie for this option because most of the work can be done at your leisure from home.
Most colleges offer online courses in some capacity. Students often fill their schedules with both online and on-campus courses. This gives students more flexibility in their schedules for work and other extracurricular activities while still maintaining a presence on campus. Students often do this to keep full-time status or when they have a demanding job.