There is no simple answer.
Some college degrees are well worth the money. If I were a young(er) man, I’d go into petroleum engineering or robotics, or some other field where you learn something that translates to a well paying job. Online just doesn’t match making the connections you do at a school, if you do it right.
Lot of college programs are just babysitting and lots of degrees are worthless.
Online learning is great for some skills, particularly if you know exactly what you need to learn, but not everyone does at 18 or 22.
Khan University ( https://www.khanacademy.org/ ), MIT Opencourseware ( https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic/ are free and online now, good times.
Those courses are free and online; however, you cannot get a degree from MIT unless you pay full course fees and take the final exams.
Many people are forgetting a few very important things: First, the people you go to school with are how you find your jobs. Second, we are a society. There is no substitute for socializing with people who share your interests. Online learning accomplished neither of those.