I don't think Coursera has really caught on yet. And that's just a lack of understanding. There's a lot of terrific universities that work through that platform but I just think the platform itself isn't commanding a lot of attention from Adcom at this point.
MBA math is undoubtedly the best investment in terms of online courses. It's very well known and respected, and send transcripts directly to the schools once you've completed it.
I think most admissions people would advise you take in person courses at reputable universities. The reason is because this would be a far better predictor of how you would do at their Institution. And this makes sense, you might be able to do OK in an online course, but they can't discern the quality of that and there's no way to really use that as a predictor variable for how you would do in their program.
Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com
_________________