Lower Cost of Courses
OK so lets not beat about the bush here, in general taking classroom based photography courses is not a cheap way to learn. I have attended several courses recently where the cost has run to several hundred dollars a day. The main reason classroom courses are much more expensive is because the person running the course has a huge number of expenses that can include the following: rent of a classroom, travel expenses, labor costs for both them and possible any assistants.
The reason why on line photography courses (that you can take in your own home) are so much cheaper is because none of these costs exist to the person providing the course. As soon as the tutor has created the course materials they can keep selling them in the future with no such expenses such as rent. The net result is the home photography courses are much cheaper for you and I.
Convenience
If you have ever tried to find a decent photography course in your local area you probably ended up doing what I have done. Initially I became frustrated and gave up as it seemed there were no photography courses that appealed ion my area. The only courses that appealed to me were a long way from home and the couple that i eventually took ended up costing me much more than usual as I had to pay traveling costs. In fact for one of them I also had to stray overnight as it was a two day course!
Your Pace of Learning
I (like many people) am not the most confident of person. When I learn I like to read, consider what I have just read and let it sink in slowly. I have often found in the past that in a classroom environment I soon become left behind by the pace of learning and as a result, do not get the most out of the courses that I take.