[zanny]

Online learning only works when you aren't coerced into having to undertake it. Your peers cheated because they had no reason to give a crap about learning the subject matter forced upon them.

> a semester course shouldn't be that easy to complete in such a short amount of time.

Sure they can. When you go to college, by the way, take an absurd amount of CLEP tests. Preferably now. You can skip upwards of a year or two of attendance and save buttloads of money. You also save a lot of time. I completely avoided a senior year of college by CLEP testing out of all my schools requirement courses and it took me around 2 weeks of study per subject (rigorous, 4 - 6 hours a day) to accure enough to pass the tests. And I passed all 6 of them.

Your problem just demonstrates the trend - there is no "do this and everyone learns wonderfully and the world is butterflies and rainbows". People are different, will interact differently, and the capacity of an education system hinges on the participation and good intentions of all parties involved. I think that requires more voluntarism and self-motivation on the parts of students, and instructors and mentors that have passion for their craft.