Most MOOCs from what I've seen are so basic to even take seriously. For example if you are learning some course called physics 101 which claims to be equivalent to college level. The real physics 101 in the classroom will be comprehensive in the sense that you learn all the material over 16 weeks by studying 15 or so textbook chapters - the whole subject in detail. The MOOC on the other hand will only cover the first 3 chapters or cover all 15 chapters but only the absolute basics of each chapter. The worse part is people take these courses and think they have a physics 101 understanding of the subject when in reality they only have pre-physics 101 introductory knowledge. It becomes really obvious what their knowledge level is.

I like the idea of MOOCs but there is a very serious quality issue with them at the moment, even the MOOCs from big name universities are a joke.

I took Cryptography I on Coursera. It is a very comprehensive and stringent course, and therefore stands out among all the other watered down MOOCs. Yet the discussion forum and comment fields are filled with students angrily complaining how hard the course is and how the teacher is condescending in saying things like “it should be obvious”, “as is known to everyone”.

I guess these students ruined MOOCs for everyone else. Schools now know that when they put out an advanced course, not only do they reap little reward, but also alienate lots of people who think their intelligence is insulted.

The AWS certs are really good.

You don't become an expert, but get a good feeling for things to look out for when building your services.

What are some of your favorite MOOCs/certs? Slash what do you deem to be some of the "best" or most worth for its ROI?

The best thing to do with the highest ROI is your own projects for a portfolio, ideally things which haven't been done before (e.g. in the context of data science/ML, not the Titanic dataset or sentiment analysis of Trump's tweets).

Everyone has their own learning style, but I stopped doing MOOCs once I realized that doing work in a similar domain is more practical.

Thanks for your response. I agree that portfolio projects show more about a person than their certifications. I never liked taking exams in school anyways. :p

Regardless, do you think that there are any MOOCs/certifications that are worth investing in, if you were going to get one anyways? Say, if your employer is paying you to get one, etc.