I did grad school online rather than in person and my impression is that people have their lives already and are truly only there for their present lives. I was in an education department course and thus most of those in it were already teachers who were required to take courses or wanted a higher degree for more pay or to change fields within education, etc. That being said, being online, people did not necessarily live anywhere near me so it would have been harder to do anything socially anyway, even if anyone had wanted to.

As far as how hard it is, often these days one is working full time and going to school and that definitely makes studying hard. There is no additional help anymore, one is supposed to figure things out on one's own, they don't "hand-hold" at all anymore, explain things, it is mostly just reading and writing and almost one-on-one between what you are learning and yourself; other people and "opinions"/discussion aren't quite as important. Usually one has to get an "A" or "B" to move on (but in my experience that is what they usually give out because most who are there were chosen to be there in the first place and have the experience) so there is that pressure, there are no excuses or extra time, etc. anymore, you have to work "full out" all the time.