Yes, following along online can give you as much information as sitting silently in lectures and recitations and completing problem sets while sitting in isolat

Yes, following along online can give you as much information as sitting silently in lectures and recitations and completing problem sets while sitting in isolation in your dorm room; but there’s way more to be learned by thoughtfully engaging in discussions with your professors, TA’s, and classmates. In fact I’d argue the bulk of my education came from the latter. In short: Getting A’s at MIT is simple. Challenging yourself to challenge your colleagues is difficult. Not to mention all the labs. As a corollary, I’d go on to argue everyone who paid full tuition for online classes during the pandemic got ripped off on a massive scale.