The authorities appear to have based this idea on the current requirements for ATPL ground school study. If I recall correctly the legal minimum for ATPL is 650 hours of which 10% must be done in the classroom. This typically leads to two weeks of classroom study being applied to distance learning courses.
To ensure that the candidates are ready for the exams they are required to take practice exams during the two weeks of classroom work. In some schools this takes up virtually all of the classroom study time, so there really isn't any significant face-to-face tuition.
If the same approach were to be applied to the PPL ground school, only 10 hours would be done in the classroom. With 7 subjects this would be completely consumed in taking practice exams.
It is of course entirely possible (I suspect probable?) that a more stringent approach will be applied to the PPL students.