3 Ways to Use MOOCs to Advance Your Career - Walter Frick, Harvard Business Review

I’ve found there are at least three good ways to learn from MOOCs, depending on your goals and the time you plan to spend. In some cases, it makes sense to go for a certificate, which means completing all the coursework and usually costs money. For courses on Coursera, edX, or Udacity, getting a certificate typically requires several hours of work per week, for several weeks or even months. But that’s not the only way to use MOOCs. Another option is to audit the course, watching all the videos but not necessarily completing all the assignments. Finally, in some cases you can get what you need just by sampling a MOOC, watching a video here or there to get the specific knowledge that you need. https://hbr.org/2016/07/3-ways-to-use-moocs-to-advance-your-career