Making Connections

"We used to send out books that looked like this," says Barbara Dreyer, as she holds the 500-page volume from one of the first-ever courses offered online by Connections Academy. "You could look at this information online, but, frankly, a lot of people were doing this," she adds, thumbing through the book's pages. Dreyer, has been president and CEO at Connections Education, the nation's second-largest for-profit online learning provider, since 2001. With online learning rapidly gaining more visibility, Dreyer engages in a conversation with the author of this article about how she and her colleagues may be embarking on their most important mission yet: to become honest discussion leaders about the strengths and weaknesses of online learning in the present, and the path of its future development.