[ska]

Gaining the knowledge may be all you care about, so long as you never have to demonstrate that gain.

Certificates/exams/etc. are all used as proxies for demonstrating that in a complex and expensive way.

Perhaps Udacity et. al. need an equivalent to "audit" - sounds like that would work for you.

[JamesBarney]

This seems like a valid criticism to removing a certification but not access to a course.

[gaius]

EdX has this - courses are free to audit, you only pay if you want a certificate (but you can always screenshot your progress page)

[bcheung]

It was more the removing access to a course that I paid for if I didn't follow their schedule that really upset me.

[ska]

ah, that's fair enough. annoying.