General

if you're taking a Spanish course, you should take it in the classroom. it's a lot more fun in person when you're practicing with your classmates. it's so funny hearing people attempt to speak another language and sounded very bad with their accent and misplace words/incorrect grammar. i love language classes because you're actually seeing it put to use and seeing yourself progress throughout the course.

From my own experience taking college-level Spanish both in person and online, the online class is a LOT more work than the physical class. A lot less fun as well. Fair warning, that 11:59 pm deadline is no joke. Do not take it online if you're prone to procrastinating (like me.) For my online class, I had a lot of online assignments due every Tuesday and Friday by 11:59 pm. Not exactly hard, but very very tedious and time consuming. Within those modules were a few partner activities that required submitting recordings of us talking to each other. That was a pain not only because we had to both be online at the same time, but also the platform itself was horrible. More often than not, we spent upwards of 20 minutes relogging/reconnecting just to be able to hear each other. There were also forum-like discussions that my professor would dock points for if you posted on the last day of the discussion (Wednesday)/posted all on the same day so if you wanted full credit you had to post by Sunday night and have your posts spread out over three days. It was insane, but I still managed to pass with an A. I also completely blanked and forgot about the final because I was so focused on studying/doing papers for my other classes. I ended up having to email my professor begging her to reopen it for me. Luckily she was very understanding and remembered how well I did in her in-person Spanish 1 class so she did reopen it. Deadlines are surprisingly hard to remember when you don't have a professor physically telling you every class. o.o

Definitely take it in person if you can.

Online courses are generally easier for academic courses in high school.

I never actually took one because I thought they would be too difficult, but I have a couple of friends who have and they said they really weren't all that bad. Guess it depends on the class.

I have taken a couple. They are not really online but kinda are.
You have to set your own schedule involving doing the assigned readings, studying, homework, and studying for exams.
I like that I don't have to physically be there but it feels like I'm not getting my money's worth.
Its gets distracting trying to pay attention to a video lecture when you want to do other things like play games or watch YouTube videos.
Also you cannot ask for help instead have to email the professor or TAs which can take hours days.
I prefer relatively small classes with personal attention.

Never take online language courses...
I had to talk to a microphone all the time. Compared to other academic courses, language courses are brutal

Be prepared to learn on your own. Make sure you know how to study properly, and know how to manage your time wisely. Most online classes have teachers that might not be too lenient in terms of handing in assignments late, or retakes on missed tests (from my experience at least).