The one big positive side to MOOCs is that they offer breadth (even if it's somewhat watered down). My own real life academic curriculum is 90% pure math, with programming and theoretical physics covering the other 10%, and having a wide range of interesting and diverse MOOCs lets you see what else is out there :)
true! because the lectures are delivered asynchronously you can survey a broad amount of material. again, I definitely think that the world is a better place for having available courseware, but you shouldn't let the brand name of the professors institution (harvard, MIT, stanford, etc) fool you - it is still watered down. it has to be.
