How it is actually taught

What every programme gives you

Written or recorded material covering the syllabus, assignments per paper, and an end-of-semester examination. That is the floor, and at the budget end it is close to the ceiling too.

What the fee buys above that

• Live sessions. Scheduled, usually evenings or weekends. Worth real money for quantitative papers and strategy; worth nothing if you will not attend.
• Doubt support. Someone to ask. The least advertised and most complained-about dimension in Indian distance education.
• A cohort. The one thing a cheap programme genuinely cannot manufacture.

Which subjects suffer most without teaching

Quantitative Techniques and Financial Management, by a wide margin. Both are cumulative — miss the foundation and the rest does not land. If your programme has any live teaching at all, spend it on these two.

Strategic Management loses the most from having no cohort. Taught without discussion it becomes a list of frameworks to memorise.

Exams

Online mode usually means remotely proctored examinations you sit at home. Distance mode usually means term-end examinations at a physical centre. That single difference decides the programme for a lot of people who travel.