You're claiming these courses, and you also claim you did well and learned something.
So...
Scenario 1 you're interviewing for a job:
Interviewer has knowledge and experience in the area of question.
They ask you "tell me about XYZ - you have taken courses on the subject? <looks at your resume>".
Your answer is:
* "blah blah blah blah blah ..lots of juicy details about the cool stuff you learned."
* "blah blah blah, where you learned it from"
* "blah blah what you did in the course"
* "yada yada, here's an essay I wrote, citing sources".
* "foo bar baz I got a article published in a magazine or did a talk at XYZ"
* "I built this thing for XYZ ..check out these pictures"
Your answer is not:
* "Here's my credential in XYZ"
Scenario 2 you're hanging at a local meetup for XYZ, you know, "doing the networking"
Someone says "FOO in XYZ subject is cool"
You say: "No doubt! I took a course on on XYZ on coursera. I did a whole section on FOO, it was sweet"
You do not say : "here's my credential"
Scenario 4 you're on a date
You do not say : "here's my credential(s)"[1]
Scenario 5 you're hanging with your significant other, having a intellectual discussion (I guess the date in #4 went well)
You do not say : "blah blah blah - I have credential(s) - yada yada, I'm right"[2]
[1] whatever credential(s) is a euphemism for -- you can never lead with this on a date :) :) :).
Scenario 6 you're interviewing for a job and personnel manager has hardly any knowledge about the topic (very usual).
Personnel manager: "You claim that you have knowledge in [topic]. What do you have to prove this kind of knowledge?
Me: "I attended course in [provider] and completed it successfully with distinction. Here's the certificate..."
Scenario 7 - again job interview
Personnel manager: "You claim that you very actively continue to educate yourself. What can you offer to prove you claim?"
Me: "Here's a list of certificates that I earned on Coursera for the last year alone. These show my individual initiative in self-improvement in quite a range of skills that could be important for the job."
Alternate answer: "The increasingly difficult and diverse projects I have completed drew on all of the new knowledge I was gaining, and speak for themselves."
The personnel manager (again: they usually have few knowledge about the topic) is usually not able to assess whether these projects were really difficult or just smoke and mirrors.
On the other hand, checking the certificates is easy...
First: This kind of personal manager a hate object in German programming and engineering circles in about the same way the pointy-haired boss does in US ones.
I openly can't answer this question for reasons that are off topic here. But I have good reasons to believe that the stories are often true: If you just look at job advertisements you'll very often see very contradictory job requirements that by simple logic and knowledge of, say, programming can hardly be satisfied and simply make no sense for the job. No, say, programmer with the faintest knowledge about his job would write such a job advertisement. On the other hand, if you know the typical hire process, where often the personal manager has a say...
I haven't had many of those myself - but that may be a selection bias due to not having accumulated credentials. Have to admit, no body has ever asked me to prove I went to university but they have consistently asked for the types of answers I describe in scenario #1 above.
In the case of the hiring I do, our "personal managers" are code surfacing resumes based on their content and then a lightweight screening before they come to me. That screening might include a check to verify experience or references.
Then I never ask for credential -- only discussion and proof of work (again - maybe a bias of me and those like me).
You're claiming these courses, and you also claim you did well and learned something.
So...
Scenario 1 you're interviewing for a job:
Interviewer has knowledge and experience in the area of question.
They ask you "tell me about XYZ - you have taken courses on the subject? <looks at your resume>".
Your answer is:
Your answer is not: Scenario 2 you're hanging at a local meetup for XYZ, you know, "doing the networking"Someone says "FOO in XYZ subject is cool"
You say: "No doubt! I took a course on on XYZ on coursera. I did a whole section on FOO, it was sweet"
You do not say : "here's my credential"
Scenario 4 you're on a date
You do not say : "here's my credential(s)"[1]
Scenario 5 you're hanging with your significant other, having a intellectual discussion (I guess the date in #4 went well)
You do not say : "blah blah blah - I have credential(s) - yada yada, I'm right"[2]
[1] whatever credential(s) is a euphemism for -- you can never lead with this on a date :) :) :).
[2] this never works