How to structure Schema.org markup for a college program with multiple courses?

Courses
1

I’m working on Schema.org markup for a college website. I’ve already added schemas for individual courses like PE and French 101. Now I’m stuck on how to represent entire programs.

For example, I want to show a Computer Science Diploma program with multiple sessions, each containing several courses. It looks something like this:

Computer Science Diploma
  Session 1
    PE 1
    Programming Languages 101
    College Level English 101
  Session 2
    Programming Languages 201
    Databases 101

I can’t find a specific schema for programs. I’ve seen mentions of ItemList, but I’m not sure if that’s the right approach. It feels odd to use a simple list for such a structured program.

Is there a better way to represent this hierarchy in Schema.org? How can I properly show the relationship between the program, sessions, and individual courses?

2

As someone who’s implemented Schema.org markup for educational institutions, I can share my experience with structuring program data. For complex programs like your Computer Science Diploma, I’ve found that using a combination of schemas works best.

I’d recommend using ‘EducationalProgram’ as the main entity, with the ‘hasCourse’ property to link to individual courses. For the sessions, you can use ‘CourseInstance’ to represent each semester or term.

Here’s a simplified structure:

EducationalProgram (Computer Science Diploma)
  hasCourse
    CourseInstance (Session 1)
      hasCourse
        Course (PE 1)
        Course (Programming Languages 101)
        Course (College Level English 101)
    CourseInstance (Session 2)
      hasCourse
        Course (Programming Languages 201)
        Course (Databases 101)

This approach maintains the hierarchy while using appropriate Schema.org types. It’s more semantically correct than using ItemList and better represents the program structure. Remember to include other relevant properties like ‘provider’, ‘timeRequired’, and ‘educationalCredentialAwarded’ for a comprehensive markup.

3

yo iris, i’ve dealt with this before. try using ‘EducationalOccupationalProgram’ for the main program. then use ‘hasCourse’ to link to each session (as ‘CourseInstance’). inside those, list individual courses.

it might look like:

EducationalOccupationalProgram (CompSci Diploma)
hasCourse
CourseInstance (Session 1)
hasCourse
Course (PE 1)
Course (Prog Lang 101)

this keeps the structure clear n logical. hope it helps!

4

Hey there, Iris_92Paint! :wave: Your question about structuring Schema.org markup for college programs is super interesting. I’ve been dabbling in this stuff too, and it can be a bit of a head-scratcher, right?

Have you considered using the ‘Course’ schema as your main container? It might sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. You could set up your Computer Science Diploma as a top-level ‘Course’, and then use the ‘hasCourseInstance’ property to link to each session. Within each session, you can list the individual courses using ‘courseSchedule’ or even nested ‘hasCourseInstance’ properties.

Something like this:

Course (Computer Science Diploma)
hasCourseInstance (Session 1)
courseSchedule
Course (PE 1)
Course (Programming Languages 101)
Course (College Level English 101)
hasCourseInstance (Session 2)
courseSchedule
Course (Programming Languages 201)
Course (Databases 101)

What do you think about this approach? It keeps things relatively simple while still showing the hierarchy. Plus, it’s flexible enough to add more details to each course if needed.

Have you tried any other methods that worked well? I’m always curious to hear about different approaches!