Andy Carpenter:  

members. My other interests include digital photography and science fiction. Workplace I love on-line teaching and learning, and my work at Kaplan University--an innovative and entrepreneurial on-line institution of higher learning--is extremely rewarding. The University, a for-profit institution run by a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company, is led and staffed by educators committed to bringing excellent student-centered learning to a population of adult learners with limited access to traditional higher education. The absence of the usual academic bureaucracy, combined with the resources and willingness to test many pedagogical innovations, allow me and my colleagues to help our students secure outstanding educational outcomes. One lesson I've learned: a well-designed on-line class makes possible student-student and student-instructor interaction quantitatively and qualitatively superior to what can be achieved in a traditional classroom. In just a few years the University's on-line enrollment has grown from under 100 students and 30 faculty to nearly 25,000 students and 2,000 faculty; helping to construct a new type of institution of higher learning involves many rewarding challenges.