If you have access to the Internet and some time to spare on honing your skills, then online education is the right choice.

An online educational course comes for as little as Rs 250, right up to Rs 20,000. The advantage of online education is that it allows you to study when you feel like and enhance your skills even at home or on the job.

Usually online courses are considerably cheaper than the normal classroom coaching, though the learner has to foot the Internet access charges.

Normally, such courses cost about one-third of an instructor-led live training. Aptech offers 1,300 courses on information technology and management having a duration of 4 hours to 154 hours. These are priced between Rs 500 and Rs 19,500.

NIIT's netvarsity.com offers several courses in management, IT and personal skills. Most of the students registered here are professionals and students with an IT background.

NIIT feels that people opt for these courses to upgrade their skills and not necessarily for bagging a job. All that the courses do is to enhance the functionality of an individual.

Anytime anywhere learning, uniformity of content and a dynamic content are some of the features of online coaching.

Unlike coaching classes, which have a fixed schedule, online courses offer flexibility in learning.

The use of technology ensures that the content delivered is uniform and can be updated more frequently and easily. Some courses also offer the option of self-assessment tests.

Nidhish Singh, who has done a management course from Aptech, feels that the flexibility to learn from anywhere -- even when one is on a tour -- is the best thing about doing online courses. Time constraints saw Singh opt for online education.

"It was like any other distance education programme with an added option of tutor chat. There was an emphasis on case studies which gave it a very practical orientation and was particularly of help in my profession -- marketing. It did help me navigate with greater confidence through the job market," he said.

Amit Sinha, who has done a computer course from the same institute, opted for it as it didn't clash with his management classes.

"A classroom course would have cost approximately the same. There in fact I would not have got as much lab time to practise," he says.

"I could learn at odd hours in the night after my regular study hours. It was worth the money that I put in as I learnt a lot," he added.

The institute also offered the flexibility to work after he had exhausted his training days.

"I wouldn't say that it helped me in getting a job. What it did was to add to my skill base and have that extra edge over others," he said.

Rahul Upmanyu, an executive with a firm in Delhi, feels that an online course will not be of much benefit to a fresher.

A person with a solid educational background and a fair bit of experience can, however, greatly benefit from it, feels Upmanyu.

"It depends on who is doing the course. Is it a fresh graduate from school or someone with 2-3 years of experience on the job?" he points out.

Having done a management module from a foreign university online he feels that several universities abroad offer additional features, which are of immense practical use.

Asked whether the course was worth the money spent on it, he felt that it was reasonably priced for its value.

Working as a systems engineer with Wipro Technologies - Jay Choudhary feels that online courses are definitely helpful.

He had done a module of about 30-45 hours with NIIT s netvarsity.com, which cost him only Rs 1,100.

This he feels is a small amount for acquiring something -- good communication skills -- that will help in his professional career.

Anupam Kundu, who is currently working with LG Electronics as a software engineer, too has done a course online from NIIT. He feels that this kind of training is of considerable help if one is a working professional.

"In these times of rapid technological change we have to keep ourselves abreast with what is happening. Pursuing a course online is a way of doing that. It is not a bad investment," he feels.

It is reasonably priced compared to the content it delivers, Kundu adds. Another software engineer working on the mainframes technology, Sachin Gulati also has a similar view to offer. He chose to do a short course on project management online out of personal interest.

"I was free to finish it in six hours. Although it has not helped me thus far in the job, it is not an investment gone waste," he says.

Getting it right: All said and done, online courses cannot replicate classroom learning. What they can do is to help improve one's knowledge base at one's own convenience, especially for those living in metropolitan cities.