They could very well partner. Let's say you are a recruiter looking for someone who knows machine learning and is based (or wiling to move to) a certain place. A quick search on linkedin and you are shown, amongst others, all the candidates who completed the Machine Learning course on Coursera and match your location criteria. And the other way works as well: if you completed an online course and tell linkedin about it, it can indicate you positions in your area were your new skills could be useful.