I'm not a developer but I do serve as an adjunct professor for some technical courses at a local college. I had some students ask me the same thing this semest

I'm not a developer but I do serve as an adjunct professor for some technical courses at a local college. I had some students ask me the same thing this semester and so I tried to really dig in to the different offerings and these are the points I made to the class: 1) I believe you will learn the most from EdX IF the institution putting the course on is reputable (MITx, HavardX etc) 2) The credential I think carries the most weight is Udacity, because they have the most rigorous testing. It's not an honor code. 3) I'd put Udacity's weight on par with most online colleges in Canada or the US (Walden, Athabasca, etc). 4) This credential won't matter to other colleges, or to large workplaces (thousands of employees) who have HR departments who want to just "have a checkbox" Lastly, it's important to be able to sell the value of the credential. I have a degree from an online college that I got part time. The college isn't all that reputable. But, I have that degree because I was working full-time and still wanted to validate my skills in a different field. So I worked evenings and weekends to make that happen, and to many employers that shows commitment and work ethic. I personally think the best path forward is to learn what you can, and create a good portfolio. Shop it around, if you can't get anywhere with that try a Udacity nanodegree (watch the videos for free first, then pay the monthly fee and speed through the tests). Finally if that doesn't work get an EdX honor certificate from one of the big name schools like MIT, they don't have much weight, but it may give a hiring manager cause to take a second glance.