I'm finishing my degree online (through state schools, so 100% legitimate colleges). I have taken 4 online classes before (anatomy & physiology, anthropology, English and a religion/film class), and in my experience, online classes are at most HALF the work of regular, in-person classes. For example, for the English class I took (which was a 3-credit senior seminar), all I had to do was read a number of short stories and parts of a few books, write 10 journal entries of about 500 words each and a 7 page paper. With the same professor, doing a 3-credit, 300-level class in person, I had to do 20 journal entries and an 8 page paper. The difference in amount of work is part of the reason I wanted to finish online. I'm just not academically motivated, and so for me, having less work is easier.