Online offerings provide increased student access and aid students in achieving their educational goals, while also promising higher education institutions access to new revenue streams. As demand for online offerings increase and institutions move to include online offerings in their long-term strategies, researchers have not documented how online offerings are being incorporated and for what purpose. Understanding how higher education decision makers view the purpose of online offerings and how perceptions vary throughout an institution can provide insight into the current state of online education and help inform attempts to change or improve it. This study, therefore, examines how decision makers in various roles within a higher education institution perceive the purpose and role of online offerings at their institution. Using case study methodology, this dissertation includes qualitative interviews with 12 participants employed at a large R1 university located in the northeastern United States that offers both residential and fully online programs. From the interviews, four overarching themes were identified, and findings suggest that participants perceive online offerings as more of a market-focused function designed to generate revenue to subsidize more mission-focused core activities of the university. Net revenue generation is integral to the purpose of online offerings and decisions are made to maximize net revenue by growing enrollments or by reducing expenditures. As such, online offerings are intentionally market focused and efforts to invest in enhancing quality or using online offerings to innovate are deterred. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]