There are different ways of completing coursework at different distance learning graduate school programs. For some schools, all the coursework is online, at other schools all the coursework is in classes in an on-campus residency, and some schools have a mix of the two.
Phoenix University has distributed classrooms at more than 200 locations throughout the USA and Canada. So, they have a strong focus on coursework in classrooms, yet many of their courses are online. They have a strong commitment to offering their educational opportunity as a mix.
Walden University has a mix of online courses and on-campus residencies. Looking through their catalog, it seems that there are many elective courses around a central core for each doctoral program. They on-campus residencies seem to be focused on the development of the dissertation research proposal.
Oxford Graduate School is designed so that the student has classes in on-campus residency for all courses. And then completes the coursework at home following a 30, 60, 90, and 120-day schedule of assignments. These assignments take the student deeper into the specific material of the course. The completed assignments are submitted through the Internet.
Although all of the courses cover a broad base of topics, all of them have two things in common: 1) They are preparing their students to become leaders in whatever field they chose. 2) They are preparing their students for the dissertation by having them practice research skills and techniques in every course of the whole program.
Oxford Graduate School also has two Reading And Research seminars as part of the program. One is at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in England. The other is at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. I think of them as research practicums. Each of these is about a week long and they include some lectures, but mostly it is a time for applying the research techniques you have learned to your own dissertation research topics.
