Online courses are more flexible for sure. You sign in and you don't even have to sit there for the program to run. You can either tape it and watch it later or just goof off and never have to listen to anything said there. Yet the school's system shows that you've logged in and so you would get credit for at least having done that.
But in-person class attendance is not flexible like that and you can't tape it with a recorder if you aren't attending the class. Once class is over, the professor doesn't repeat everything exactly as she just did during class. If you miss the class, you are going to miss the whole lecture. Your attendance will not be counted, if the school takes attendance for credit.
Which one is better depends on what you want out of it and your schedule, really.