Let's us begin by stating what data analysis is all about. Wikipedia defines data analysis as the process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, information conclusion and supporting decision making.
The above definition simply means that data analysis is a means of gaining business intelligence through data mining which will ultimately be channeled for decision making. Drawing from this, it will be quiet tempting to state that online course on the said subject will be better than offline courses, or the other way around. This is because studying this course will require conventional learning and practicals due to it's sensitive process. Online course on the other hand will also be of great impact giving the endless amounts of materials available over the internet for reference purposes.
In my opinion, I believe it will be best to go through the conventional means of education for this subject due to the reason stated above. Online study wouldn't be left behind as it can be used for research purposes.