Course Schema

Course Schema

Course Schemas provides detailed information about an educational course on a webpage. It includes properties like title, description, instructor(s), duration, prerequisites, etc. Implementing this markup helps search engines understand and present course-related content in search results.

A course schema typically includes various properties such as the course title, description, provider, instructor, duration, start date, end date, prerequisites, language, audience, delivery method (e.g., online, in-person), course fees, and more. Can be used by various platforms and applications to display course information consistently and accurately across different interfaces.

Mandatory Fields:

• Title: The name or title of the course.
• Description: A brief overview or summary of the course content.
• Provider: The entity or organization offering the course.
• Start Date: The date when the course begins.
• End Date: The date when the course concludes.

Recommended Fields:

• Instructor: The individual or individuals responsible for teaching the course.
• Duration: The time it takes to complete the course.
• Prerequisites: Any requirements or qualifications needed before enrolling in the course.
• Audience: The intended target audience or demographic for the course.
• Language: The primary language used in the course materials.
• Delivery Method: How the course is delivered, whether online, in-person, or through a specific medium.
• Fees: Any costs associated with enrolling in the course.

Including both mandatory and recommended fields in a course schema ensures that the course is effectively represented and provides the necessary information for users to find, evaluate, and enroll in the course.

Here is an example of Course schema looks like:

How to access Course schema using Rich Snippets

Access it from METAs – Rich Snippet – Course Page

Clicking on the “+” symbol will open up a panel where you can start editing and customizing your Schema Template.

A pop-up will appear

Add your data, a question and its answer.
Mandatory fields will have small red starlike symbol (*) added to them:

Select the Provider

“Organization” refers to an entity that offers the course, such as a school or business;

“Person” denotes an individual, like a teacher or instructor, responsible for or associated with the course.

Add a description for the course, while there’s no specific character limit for the “description” field as defined by https://schema.org/Course. For optimal SEO, keep descriptions concise, aiming for 150-160 characters, similar to meta descriptions, to highlight essential information.

Adding “published date” and “modified date” adds clear timestamps for when the course was first offered and last updated. This helps users understand the currency of the course content and search engines to recognize the freshness and relevance of the information, potentially influencing search rankings and user trust.

Adding an author name attributes the content to its creator, enhancing credibility and user trust.

Adding review ratings highlights user satisfaction, influencing trust and enrollment decisions.
Use valid rating scale values (1 to 5) to accurately reflect the feedback from actual users to maintain integrity and trustworthiness in the data presented.

Incorporating reviews into a Course schema enhances the information with real user feedback

Special mention: Ensure reviews are genuine and include the “Review” property with detailed “reviewRating” and “author” information to provide context and authenticity to the feedback.

With this you have a Course schema set up. All there is left to do is check it up and see if it works as expected. This is easier than you imagine, and Squirrly will help with the steps.

Verify Markup

After saving your changes, you can verify that the Course schema markup has been added correctly by viewing the page or post source code. Look for the JSON-LD markup representing the Course schema.

1. Click on JSON-LD Code – Validate JSON-LD

2. A new page / tab will open you will get you test code, click on TEST CODE

3. A small pop-up appears, and you will have to wait a few moments for the data to be processed
4. Once data is processed, you will be able to see your work, test it, share it and use it to enhance your work.

For further details, we recommend referring to the following resources
Course schema
Course list (Course) structured data

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