I can also confirm I've had this experience. I learned a lot from MOOCs I never completed. That's why I like Khan Academy's model for educational content - alig

I can also confirm I've had this experience. I learned a lot from MOOCs I never completed. That's why I like Khan Academy's model for educational content - aligned in paths, and with some gamification around completing, but ultimately made to be searchable, and relatively easy to pick up in the middle. And that's how I've used it as well - I probably have only a module or two completed, but I've watched many videos just trying to get a better grasp on one concept that wasn't well enough explained in a book I was using, or just to refresh my recollection.