As one who has had both online and brick-and-mortar classes, my experience is that discipline is required for both delivery methods.
Interestingly, today's brick-and-mortar classes have adopted a number of 'online' elements you find in online courses, such as: degree plans, course descriptions, course requirements, grades, online messaging between student & professors.
Son-in-law is about to finish his MBA at UofA Fayetteville. He only meets class one Saturday a month. Everything else is online.