Those wonderful online classes require a working computer and an internet connection to take them, and aren't worth the printer paper you print the results out on. Unless there's a reputable non-profit organization that can validate the results of those classes and make them worth recognizing, they create a bit of education for the consumer but are worth little in the working world.
Udacity is much better than most MOOCs at this, given that most of them have a limited window for which you can submit projects for completion. My anecdote: I wanted to take classes from Coursera on data science, but I am the sole developer for a publisher and have worked 60-70 hour weeks during the time that they've published the classes due to a project crunch. I don't currently have time to keep up with the course material in order to complete the class satisfactorily.
Now, you can rebut that somewhat by saying that we have free public resources in libraries to take advantage of, but when you're raising a kid and working a shift at the grocery store, you don't have much time to be in the library, most of which have very short hours on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays.
What we need are cheaper computers and subsidized internet access.
Udacity is much better than most MOOCs at this, given that most of them have a limited window for which you can submit projects for completion. My anecdote: I wanted to take classes from Coursera on data science, but I am the sole developer for a publisher and have worked 60-70 hour weeks during the time that they've published the classes due to a project crunch. I don't currently have time to keep up with the course material in order to complete the class satisfactorily.
Now, you can rebut that somewhat by saying that we have free public resources in libraries to take advantage of, but when you're raising a kid and working a shift at the grocery store, you don't have much time to be in the library, most of which have very short hours on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays.
What we need are cheaper computers and subsidized internet access.