Out of curiosity, as an instructor that gets students that have done the online learning, how much time do you end up spending reviewing material with them to make sure they learned everything they needed to from the online learning?
I've never had a student with online learning. I've only done traditional.
I'm a college professor by day, so my classroom skills are fairly well polished (It was pretty funny when I did my classroom presentations during my IDC; my classmates would ask me afterward how I was able to do it so effortlessly, and I had to remind them "I do this for a living, been doing it for years.")
I know the PADI online is pretty fancy... but I've always been confident that my classroom work is superior to what is presented online. And my students get an actual book to keep.
If I ever were to handle a student that did the online... I would probably review extensively, just to be absolutely certain there were no gaps in what they need to know.