[thebeardedone]

Although I disagree with this view I cant help but get the sense that people are expecting to replace a 3-4 year education which is filled with 6-12 of these types of courses with 5 courses and think they will be valued just as much. Getting knowledge in a topic is one thing, years of problem solving across different topics is another.

I use these classes as additional support to my education (when i dont understand something or if my class just scratched the surface and i want more). Other cases are classes that aren't offered that i find interesting like advanced databases from CMU that was posted a couple of months ago.

It is definitly not a replacement, but helps you dwell into topics that you may not be able to or are unsure of.

[icc97]

I can't see how anyone would expect that Coursera certificates will be a replacement for a degree. There's quite a clear difference between the two.

Having said that each of the individual courses that I've taken on coursera were significantly better than any courses I took during my degree.

[j45]

Problem solving as a domain is experience, not just study of problem solving.

The reality is the 3-4 year educations, unless high quality, have a lot of unrelated fluff, except for the recognition.

Same goes for online courses - both are a crapshoot and what I like about your point is the overarching theme that we should pay attention to the quality of the education we're receiving and focus on our ability to create value with it.

At the end of the day, it's not what our education makes of us, but what we make of our education.