The watchword related to any learning process would directly be linked to the competency aspect. This is a very critical component in the online education medium, which youngsters will have to know and have a fair bit of understanding too.
There is no real development in the professional sense by just enrolling in an online course or training module and not coming out of it as a transformed person. The very fundamental requirement that needs to be outlined and continuously monitored through the online education platform is asking yourself whether your learning competency has really developed and enhanced, leading to your enrichment. 
As a human resource mentor involved in career counselling and guidance, I have witnessed the tendency among a vast majority of students, particularly final-year students, to get enrolled into an online programme and forget that they have to really work hard at succeeding. This might be due to many factors — their level of interest, keen involvement, dedicating time to attend the course in all seriousness, their motivation level and so on. 
One of the key factors that can be attributed to this state of affairs could be that they possibly neglect the importance of having an eye on their learning competency. This can also depend or be correlated to the aspects mentioned earlier, but to a large extent, it can also be a causative factor that determines these very same aspects.
The world is moving towards the ‘metrics’, which is an evaluative jargon that is widely being used to analyse and infer the outcome. A student taking an online course will have to dig really deep and scoop out the real, tangible and transformational benefits of engaging in a learning programme, which can be done only when there is an objective evaluation of your level of learning competency. 
Your learning competency will be reflected in your performance which will eventually be an indicator to assess if the particular online course or module has really impacted your skill sets in the chosen area. 

Improve them 
Learning competencies could improve if there’s meaningful participation 

Evaluate it
Your experiences will have to be evaluated quantitatively 

Document it
All your actions have been documented by the course instructors and managers

You are paying for an online course based on a specific need to equip yourself with a certain skill