I think hands-on learning is always better but it would also depend on the subject or/and the objectives of a course that students are taking. Hands-on learning is always better for trading schools such as automotive mechanics, nirsing, medical assistant, dental assistant, help desk learning etc. but for other subject such as business management, marketing, psychology, sociology, history, English, philosophy, etc. hands-on learning is not feasing (most of the time with some exceptions like internships).
