Education Q&A (Quiz, Question, and Answer) structured data

If you have flashcard pages, you can help students better find answers to educational questions by adding Quiz structured data to your flashcard pages. Adding structured data makes your content eligible to appear in the Q&A carousel in Google Search results, Google Assistant, and Google Lens results.

Example of an education Q&A rich result

The following page types are eligible for the education Q&A carousel:

  • Flashcard page: A page that contains flashcards that typically have a question on one side and an answer on the other side. To mark up flashcard pages, continue reading this guide to learn how to add education Q&A schema.
  • Single Q&A page: A page that only contains one question and is followed by user-submitted answers. To mark up single Q&A pages, add QAPage markup instead.

Feature availability

The education Q&A carousel is only available when searching for education-related topics on desktop and mobile. For example, try searching for queries like "the measure of three angles of a quadrilateral are 80 90 and 103 degrees" or "the ratio of surface energy to surface area is".

The education Q&A carousel is available in the following languages and regions:

Language Available regions
English All regions where Google Search is available
Portuguese All regions where Google Search is available
Spanish Mexico
Vietnamese All regions where Google Search is available

How to add structured data

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. If you're new to structured data, you can learn more about how structured data works.

Here's an overview of how to build, test, and release structured data.

  1. Add the required properties. Based on the format you're using, learn where to insert structured data on the page.
  2. Follow the guidelines.
  3. Validate your code using the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors. Consider also fixing any non-critical issues that may be flagged in the tool, as they can help improve the quality of your structured data (however, this isn't necessary to be eligible for rich results).
  4. Deploy a few pages that include your structured data and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Be sure that your page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URLs.
  5. To keep Google informed of future changes, we recommend that you submit a sitemap. You can automate this with the Search Console Sitemap API.

Examples

Here's an example of a flashcard page with education Q&A structured data. 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Cell Transport</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "Quiz",
      "about": {
        "@type": "Thing",
        "name": "Cell Transport"
      },
      "educationalAlignment": [
        {
          "@type": "AlignmentObject",
          "alignmentType": "educationalSubject",
          "targetName": "Biology"
        }
      ],
      "hasPart": [
        {
          "@context": "https://schema.org/",
          "@type": "Question",
          "eduQuestionType": "Flashcard",
          "text": "This is some fact about receptor molecules.",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "receptor molecules"
          }
        },
        {
          "@context": "https://schema.org/",
          "@type": "Question",
          "eduQuestionType": "Flashcard",
          "text": "This is some fact about the cell membrane.",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "cell membrane"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
    </script>
  </head>
</html>

Guidelines

For your page to be eligible for the education Q&A rich result, you must follow these guidelines:

Technical guidelines

  • Put structured data on the most detailed leaf page possible. Don't add structured data to pages without questions.
  • All questions must use the Flashcard value for the eduQuestionType property. Pages that contain other question types are not eligible for the education Q&A carousel.
  • Ensure that Googlebot can crawl your site efficiently.
  • The questions on your site should be immediately visible to users on the page, meaning that the questions aren't held only in a data file or PDF.
  • If your page has only one question followed by several user-submitted answers, use QAPage markup instead.

Content guidelines

We created these education Q&A content guidelines to ensure that our users are connected with learning resources that are relevant. If we find content that violates these guidelines, we'll respond appropriately, which may include taking manual action and not displaying your content in the education Q&A rich result on Google.

  • Education Q&A pages must follow the same content guidelines for Q&A pages.
  • Your page must contain education related questions and answers. There must be at least one question and answer pairing on your page, and the answer must be related to and answer the user's question.
  • You are responsible for the accuracy and quality of your education Q&A pages through this feature. If a certain amount of your content is found to be inaccurate based on quality and pedagogical review processes, then all or a subset of your Q&A pages may not be eligible for this feature until you resolve the issues.

Mark up educational standards

Learning standards are the learning goals for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. Learning standards have multiple uses, such as linking to content or making up a part of a learning progression. Marking up the standards (found under the educationalAlignment field) associated with online learning material helps Google organize and surface the information in the most useful way to people who may Search for learning content based on these standards. Here's a high-level overview of the schema:

Here are a few examples of standards:

  • Common Core State Standards
  • Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
  • Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)
  • BC Performance Standards
  • Alberta Programs of Studies
  • The Australian Curriculum (ACARA)
  • The Victorian Curriculum (F-10)
  • UK National Curriculum

Structured data type definitions

You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. You can also include the recommended properties to add more information about your content, which could provide a better user experience.

Quiz

A Quiz is a set of flashcards (one or more), which are typically about the same concept or subject.

The full definition of Quiz is provided on schema.org. The Google-supported properties are the following:

Required properties
hasPart

Question

Nested information about the specific flashcard question for the quiz. Use one hasPart property to represent a single flashcard.

To include multiple flashcards, repeat this property. 

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "hasPart": {
    "@type": "Question"
  }
}
Recommended properties
about

Thing

Nested information about the underlying concept behind the Quiz. 

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "about": {
    "@type": "Thing"
  }
}
about.name

Text

Nested information about the underlying concept behind the Quiz. Multiple entries of this property are allowed.

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "about": {
    "@type": "Thing",
    "name": "Cell transport"
  }
}
educationalAlignment

AlignmentObject

The quiz's alignment to an established educational framework. This property can be repeated to align the quiz with a field of study or domain, and the target grade or educational standard.

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "educationalAlignment": []
}
educationalAlignment.alignmentType

Text

A category of alignment between the learning resource and the framework node for the quiz. Google Search uses the LRMI standard.

Repeat the alignmentType property to specify both the field of study and the target grade or educational standard.

  • To specify the field of study or domain of the quiz, set the alignmentType property to the educationalSubject value.
  • To specify the target grade or educational standard of the quiz, set the alignmentType property to the educationalLevel value.

Here's how to specify both the educationalSubject and educationalLevel properties. 

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "educationalAlignment": [
     {
       "@type": "AlignmentObject",
       "alignmentType": "educationalSubject",
       "targetName": "Biology"
     },
     {
       "@type": "AlignmentObject",
       "alignmentType": "educationalLevel",
       "targetName": "Fifth grade"
     }

  ]
}
educationalAlignment.targetName

Text

The name of a node of an established educational framework. For example: "Grade 7: Cell Structure". 

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "educationalAlignment": [
     {
       "@type": "AlignmentObject",
       "targetName": "Grade 7: Cell Structure"
     }
  ]
}

Question

Each question corresponds to one flashcard, nested under the hasPart property of Quiz. Note that these Question requirements are different from the Question requirements for QAPage.

The full definition of Question is provided on schema.org. The Google-supported properties are the following:

Required properties
acceptedAnswer

Answer

The full text of the answer to a flashcard. There must only be one acceptedAnswer property per Question type.

{
  "@type": "Question",
  "acceptedAnswer": {
    "@type": "Answer",
    "text": "cell membranes"
  }
}
eduQuestionType

Text

The type of question. You must use this fixed value: Flashcard.

{
  "@type": "Question",
  "eduQuestionType": "Flashcard"
}
text

Text

The full text of the flashcard question.

{
  "@type": "Question",
  "text": "A protein on the surface of HIV can attach to proteins on the surface of healthy human cells. What are the attachment sites on the surface of the cells known as?"
}

使用 Search Console 监控富媒体搜索结果

Search Console 是一款工具，可帮助您监控网页在 Google 搜索结果中的显示效果。即使没有注册 Search Console，您的网页也可能会显示在 Google 搜索结果中，但注册 Search Console 能够帮助您了解 Google 如何查看您的网站并做出相应的改进。建议您在以下情况下查看 Search Console：

  1. 首次部署结构化数据后
  2. 发布新模板或更新代码后
  3. 定期分析流量时

首次部署结构化数据后

等 Google 将网页编入索引后，请在相关的富媒体搜索结果状态报告中查看是否存在问题。 理想情况下，有效项目数量会增加，而无效项目数量不会增加。如果您发现结构化数据存在问题，请执行以下操作：

  1. 修正无效项目。
  2. 检查实际网址，核实问题是否仍然存在。
  3. 使用状态报告请求验证。

发布新模板或更新代码后

如果对网站进行重大更改，请监控结构化数据无效项目的增幅。
  • 如果您发现无效项目增多了，可能是因为您推出的某个新模板无法正常工作，或者您的网站以一种新的错误方式与现有模板交互。
  • 如果您发现有效项目减少了（但无效项目的增加情况并不对应），可能是因为您的网页中未再嵌入结构化数据。请通过网址检查工具了解导致此问题的原因。

定期分析流量时

请使用效果报告分析您的 Google 搜索流量。数据将显示您的网页在 Google 搜索结果中显示为富媒体搜索结果的频率、用户点击该网页的频率以及网页在搜索结果中的平均排名。您还可以使用 Search Console API 自动提取这些结果。

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble implementing or debugging structured data, here are some resources that may help you.

  • If you're using a content management system (CMS) or someone else is taking care of your site, ask them to help you. Make sure to forward any Search Console message that details the issue to them.
  • Google does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results. For a list of common reasons why Google may not show your content in a rich result, see the General Structured Data Guidelines.
  • You might have an error in your structured data. Check the list of structured data errors and the Unparsable structured data report.
  • If you received a structured data manual action against your page, the structured data on the page will be ignored (although the page can still appear in Google Search results). To fix structured data issues, use the Manual Actions report.
  • Review the guidelines again to identify if your content isn't compliant with the guidelines. The problem can be caused by either spammy content or spammy markup usage. However, the issue may not be a syntax issue, and so the Rich Results Test won't be able to identify these issues.
  • Structured data issues can affect how your site's content appears in search results. Use this Troubleshoot missing rich results / drop in total rich results guide to review a step-by-step approach to identify, fix, and validate these issues in Search Console.
  • Allow time for re-crawling and re-indexing. Remember that it may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it. For general questions about crawling and indexing, check the Google Search crawling and indexing FAQ.
  • Post a question in the Google Search Central forum.