WHERE ADTECH MEETS EDTECH: If sites like "DegreeDirectory" and "Online Masters Degree" sound too good to be true, they probably are. Noodle, a search engine for schools and other education resources, has compiled a list of higher-ed lead generation sites, many of which lack proper disclosure. In a survey of 203 high school students, "only 6% knew that schools were paying to be listed on these sites."
At the same time, nearly half of the respondents say they weren't bothered by schools paying to get the word out. So ads aren't the problem. But lead-gen sites would do well to take a page from Google and separate church and state by clearly distinguishing between paid and organic listings.
Noodle's summarizes other findings and offers a handy primer on the problems with the education lead-gen business. The Chronicle of Higher Education has more details and cheeky comments from Noodle founder, John Katzman, and his mission to "clean up online college-search businesses."
