Big Questions

I did half my MBA online and half in person. Both methods of learning had their pros and cons of course, but telling people that fact, I got a good earful of the cons people perceive in online learning...most of them being centered around the "solitary" nature of learning online.

• "It's not a real education." Basically, you can't learn as much in an online environment as you can in person. My guess is that this is true mostly for those that are not self directed learners. Also, both online and in person programs come in the "fluff" variety.
• "If I took a class like that, I wouldn't do my work." I think...no...I KNOW I did more work in my online classes. Part of this was because there was simply more work to do, butt mostly, this was because there were fewer boundaries on "in class" work, so I pushed more.
• "No class? That must be nice." A good clue into what they saw as the primary benefit of online learning. I classify that as a con.

There's a lot of insight into the attitudes of those who aren't naturally self directed learners. Most seem to have the view that learning under one's own supervision is either less effective, or simply easier. These are the people I wonder about. I wonder if they are, or ever could be candidates for self directed learning. Can they be taught to teach themselves or does that have to be developed at a very young age? How much motivation can be "grown" and how much is innate? Can courses be modified to accommodated these learners?