OSCampus Structured Data

Google Structured Data integrates with OSCampus, the learning management system by Joomlashack, and adds structured data to your learning path, course and lesson pages. You create one Structured Data Item per page type. Every current and future learning path, course and lesson then gets its markup, and nothing is typed by hand.

The pages also point at each other. A learning path lists its courses, a course lists its modules and their lessons, and a lesson points back at its module and its course. Search engines read your whole curriculum as one connected structure.

Enable the integration

1. Log into your Joomla backend.
2. Go to Components → Google Structured Data → Configuration.
3. Click the Integrations tab.
4. Find OSCampus in the list and make sure it's enabled.

Add structured data to OSCampus pages

OSCampus has 3 kinds of front end pages, and each one needs its own Structured Data Item. The Integration View option tells the item which kind of page it's for. These are the Content Types that fit each view best.

Repeat these steps once for each row of the table.

1. Log into your Joomla backend.
2. Go to Components → Google Structured Data → Items.
3. Click New.
4. Enter a Title. It's for your own reference, so anything works.
5. Select the Content Type from the table above.
6. Select OSCampus in the Integration dropdown.
7. Select the matching page in the Integration View dropdown.
8. Click Save.

Once the item is saved, 2 new sections appear.

• The Content Type section maps each property to page data, such as the course title or the lesson length.
• Publishing Rules decide which learning paths, courses or lessons get the markup.

The defaults of the Educational Occupational Program and Learning Resource Content Types already point at the right OSCampus data, so those two items work as soon as you save them. The Course Content Type is shared with other integrations, so map its new properties yourself (see Map the Course properties below). To learn how the mapping works, read How to Add Structured Data to Pages.

How the pages connect

The integration builds the links between your pages from the OSCampus structure. You don't map anything for them.

Add a course to a learning path, or a lesson to a module, and the markup follows on the next page load.

Mapping options

On top of the standard options, such as Title, Text and Image, each Integration View adds its own options to the mapping dropdowns.

Map the Course properties

These are the mappings that fit an OSCampus course. Set them in the Course section of the Course Page item.

OSCampus has no price field. Offer Category is required, and when Price isn't mapped the markup carries a price of 0.00. So set Offer Category to Free for a free course, or map Price for a paid one.

Learning outcomes

OSCampus has no field for learning outcomes, so read them from the page with a CSS Selector. Most course pages show the outcomes as a bulleted list, so wrap that list in an element with a class of your own.

<ul class="my-outcomes">
  <li>Feed and keep a sourdough starter</li>
  <li>Shape and score a loaf</li>
</ul>

Then set Learning Outcomes to CSS Selector, enter .my-outcomes li and keep Return Node Text. Keep the li in the selector. It makes every list item a separate outcome, and without it the whole list lands in the markup as one long string.

The same works for lessons. Use the Learning Outcomes property of the Lesson Page item.

Publishing rules

Leave the publishing rules disabled and the item runs on every page of its Integration View. To target specific content, use the OSCampus publishing rules.

Each item only lists the rules that make sense for its view. A Learning Path Page item shows the Learning Path rule, a Course Page item adds the Course rule, and a Lesson Page item shows all 3.

To learn more, read the Publishing Rules part of How to Add Structured Data to Pages.

Notes

• Structured data is generated on single learning path, course and lesson pages. Course list and overview pages get none.
• Learning paths and courses get markup only when they're published and the visitor's access level can view them. A lesson needs to be published and to belong to a course the visitor can view. The Start Publishing and Finish Publishing dates count too.
• The hasCourse and syllabusSections lists skip unpublished courses and lessons. A module with no published lessons is left out.
• Every text lesson is marked up as a Lesson. The integration reads the lesson type only, so it can't tell a theory lesson from a practical assignment.