You're forgetting the other important one: sorting. Why do banks, consulting firms, and even tech companies go gaga over Stanford and Harvard grads? Because the UCLA grad doesn't have the requisite skills? No, because they trust them to sort the top 1% from the top 5% from the top 20%.

Neither MOOCs nor certification programs offer that key function. When Coursera only accepts people with a certain SAT score, then issues "degrees" ranking candidates by class performance, I think we'll see employers take them more seriously.