John Katzman, founder of the Princeton Review, has raised $4 million through his new education venture, Noodle Partners Inc. The said money will be used to help colleges bring high-quality degree programs online.
Katzman believes that online education can have the same quality as those that are taught in traditional classrooms. He also said that it has changed dramatically over the years, especially with the rise of new technology. The problem, however, he added is not about the medium but about the availability of high quality degrees at a lower cost.
He also believe that online degree programs can reverse the trend of low enrollment due to the rising cost of college. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, education enrollment has been experiencing a sharp decline for the last five years because colleges and universities, both in the private and public sectors, are getting more and more expensive.
Noodle Partners, in collaboration with Osage Venture Partners and more, hopes to change all that by providing an alternative. They are offering universities and colleges help in setting up these online programs as well as designing the on line courses, recruiting, and measuring student engagement as the course progresses.
The company, in return, will charge students with a flat rate. Katzman said that the flat rate is the edge of Noodle Partners compared to the competition, who take a large cut from the schools taking more from the school's already "challenged margins."
Its competitors include 2U, which Katzman helped establish but he's no longer affiliated with the company, Keypath, Pearson Embanet, HotChalk, Academic Partnerships, Wiley Education Solutions, and a lot more.
Osage Venture Partners Managing Partner Nate Lentz said that they invested in Noodle because they want to see the "cost curve" in higher education. They are expecting Noodles to use its funding to deploy its OPM services and technology to universities and colleges across the nation and continue to increase its enrollment in online programs at schools where they are already involved in.
