It’s good to start the comparison with the following thing in mind – both online and traditional college degrees serve the same purpose, which is to provide students with an education and award certification. This, however, is all they have in common as they vary significantly in structure, assessment and progress tracking. One of the key distinctions between online and traditional college degrees lies in the Internet-based curriculum. Based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the definition of an online class is: “a formal education process in which the students and instructor are not in the same place.” In this sense all exams, lectures and much of the reading in online classes are done over the Web. Here lies the biggest difference in comparison to traditional classroom learning. Many students are able to overcome the challenge of online instruction and adapt well to the system.