The purpose of the research was to compare the academic achievement of traditional secondary physics students and online students when taught comparable courses with identical objectives and similar assessments, assignments and grading rubrics. Additionally, online students, their parents and their teachers were surveyed to determine their perceptions toward online instruction compared to similar traditional instruction in terms of quality and effectiveness. The instructional unit included a review of previous mathematics and physics concepts from the course and three new topics basic to mechanical physics. Quantitative data was collected using assignments, tests, and quizzes from the instructional unit. Findings indicate that academic achievement for the two groups was similar in all respects, including areas of strength and weakness. Qualitative data was collected using two survey instruments. One was administered to the nine most recent online students and elicited their perceptions of online instruction in the areas of quality of content, adequacy of explanations, quality/quantity of feedback, and their mastery of the course objectives. Students indicated that online instruction compared favorably to traditional instruction in all areas. They did, however, miss face-to-face contact with an instructor. The majority of the students stated that they would take additional online courses and cited the flexibility of scheduling and ability to set one's own pace in the course as tremendous advantages of online instruction. The parents and teachers of the most recent online students were also surveyed concerning their perceptions of the success or failure of online instruction to meet students' needs. All parents and teachers felt that the greatest asset of online instruction was a student's ability to work at his/her own pace. All parents indicated that they would like for their student to take additional online courses. Teachers indicated that students should take online courses only if they were self- motivated. It is noted that these findings may not be transferable to all areas of study. These students are highly academically oriented and very self- motivated. Future research is needed in all aspects of online instruction, especially as it applies to secondary schools.