Publish your program data once, on your own domain

Write one structured file describing your programs, from tuition to start dates, deadlines, time to complete and schedules, host it on your .edu, and every affiliate, comparison site and AI assistant that subscribes gets your official numbers. When you change a price, a date or a program's status, they're told the same day.

The OLF vocabulary, the file names and Open Learning Feed are proposals. The validator works; registration is not open yet. Examples use Example University, a fictional school; every figure for it is invented.

What you control

• What is served. Publish only the programs and prices you choose. Anything you leave out stays out.
• How it updates. Produce the file from your own systems, on your own schedule. Change it whenever your pages change.
• Accuracy. Every price points to the page on your site where it appears, with the date you confirmed it.
• Leaving. Delete olf.json, and Open Learning Feed will mark your feed unreachable after 48 hours and remove your listing after 30 days.

The one file

• Who to contact goes inside the file, as a schema.org contactPoint on the publisher.
• Hosted somewhere else? If a vendor or CDN serves your feed, redirect /olf.json to it. Subscribers follow the redirect.
• Already published /olf.jsonld? That earlier name still works. Subscribers check /olf.json first, then /olf.jsonld.
• Separate feeds per college? Keep one feed at the root and list the others in it with olf:includesFeed.

Already using schema.org?

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": ["https://schema.org", "https://olfeed.org/vocab/context.jsonld"],
  "@type": "EducationalOccupationalProgram",
  "name": "Master of Business Administration",
  "url": "https://www.example.edu/programs/mba/",
  "provider": { "@type": "CollegeOrUniversity", "name": "Example University" },
  "educationalProgramMode": "online",
  "numberOfCredits": 36,
  "timeToComplete": "P18M",
  "startDate": "2027-01-11",
  "olf:programStatus": "olf:AcceptingApplications",
  "olf:admissionTestPolicy": "olf:TestNotRequired",
  "olf:completionTime": [ … ],
  "olf:classSchedule": [ … ],
  "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "priceSpecification": [ … ] }
}
</script>

{
  "@context": "https://olfeed.org/vocab/context.jsonld",
  "@type": "olf:InstitutionProgramFeed",
  "olf:ownerDomain": "https://www.example.edu",
  "olf:feedVersion": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": { "contactPoint": { "email": "feeds@example.edu" } },
  "dataFeedElement": [
    { "@type": "DataFeedItem", "dateModified": "2026-10-01",
      "item": { /* the same program object as on the page */ } }
  ]
}

• One object, two places. The program object on the page and the one in the feed should be identical. Produce both from the same source so they can't drift.
• Nothing breaks for schema.org-only tools. Search engines and other tools that know only schema.org skip the olf properties and still read everything else.
• We follow schema.org's lead. The extension tracks each schema.org release. When schema.org adds a term that covers one of ours, we switch to theirs. See Staying current.

What doesn't go in the feed

Step by step

1. List your public sources

   Find the pages where each value already appears: your tuition and fees page, each program page and your catalog. Every price in the feed points to one of them, so start from what you already publish. A figure you report from a federal or audited source can point to that source instead.

2. Write the feed

   Start from the worked example or the skeleton below. Add one DataFeedItem per program. Fill the required fields first, then add recommended ones.

   olf.json skeletonCopy

   {
     "@context": { "@vocab": "https://schema.org/", "olf": "https://olfeed.org/ns#" },
     "@type": "olf:InstitutionProgramFeed",
     "olf:ownerDomain": "https://www.your-school.edu",
     "olf:feedVersion": "2026-10-01",
     "publisher": {
       "@type": "CollegeOrUniversity", "name": "Your School",
       "contactPoint": { "@type": "ContactPoint", "contactType": "Program data", "email": "feeds@your-school.edu" }
     },
     "dataFeedElement": [
       { "@type": "DataFeedItem", "dateModified": "2026-10-01",
         "item": { /* one EducationalOccupationalProgram */ } }
     ]
   }

3. Put it at the root of your site

   Serve the file at https://your-domain/olf.json with these headers. The CORS header lets browser-based tools read it directly.

   response headersCopy

   Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
   Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
   Cache-Control: max-age=3600

4. Validate

   Paste the feed into the validator, or add the JSON Schema check to your build so a broken feed never ships.

5. Register

   Submit your domain to Open Learning Feed. It fetches /olf.json, validates it and starts notifying subscribers. Registration isn't open yet.

Required fields

Worked example

Example: an MBA

The new terms used here, including olf:focusArea, olf:completionTime, olf:classSchedule and olf:admissionTestPolicy, are defined in the specification. Program-level hasCertification is one of the widenings proposed to schema.org.

Common pricing patterns

In-state and out-of-state tuition

[
  { "@type": "olf:TuitionPriceSpecification", "name": "In-state",
    "price": 310, "priceCurrency": "USD", "olf:tuitionBasis": "olf:PerCreditHour",
    "olf:eligibleAudience": { "olf:eligibilityCategory": ["olf:InStateResident"] },
    "olf:provenance": { "olf:sourceUrl": "https://www.sample-state.example/tuition", "olf:verifiedDate": "2026-09-01" } },
  { "@type": "olf:TuitionPriceSpecification", "name": "Out-of-state",
    "price": 760, "priceCurrency": "USD", "olf:tuitionBasis": "olf:PerCreditHour",
    "olf:eligibleAudience": { "olf:eligibilityCategory": ["olf:OutOfStateResident"] },
    "olf:provenance": { "olf:sourceUrl": "https://www.sample-state.example/tuition", "olf:verifiedDate": "2026-09-01" } }
]

Evening and weekend classes

"olf:classSchedule": [
  { "@type": "Schedule", "olf:scheduleType": "olf:Evening",
    "byDay": ["Monday", "Wednesday"], "startTime": "18:00", "endTime": "21:00",
    "scheduleTimezone": "America/Chicago", "repeatFrequency": "P1W" },
  { "@type": "Schedule", "olf:scheduleType": "olf:Weekend",
    "byDay": ["Saturday"], "startTime": "09:00", "endTime": "16:00",
    "scheduleTimezone": "America/Chicago", "repeatFrequency": "P2W",
    "description": "Every other Saturday" }
]

List one Schedule per option a student can choose. Self-paced online coursework uses olf:AsynchronousOnline with no days or times.

Full-time, part-time and transfer timelines

"timeToComplete": "P24M",
"olf:completionTime": [
  { "olf:enrollmentIntensity": "olf:FullTime", "olf:typicalDuration": "P24M", "olf:minimumDuration": "P20M" },
  { "olf:enrollmentIntensity": "olf:PartTime", "olf:typicalDuration": "P42M" },
  { "olf:enrollmentIntensity": "olf:FullTime", "olf:typicalDuration": "P12M", "olf:assumedTransferCredits": 30 }
]

Durations use ISO 8601: P18M is 18 months, P2Y is two years, P16W is 16 weeks.

A price increase on a known date, keeping history

[
  { "@type": "olf:TuitionPriceSpecification", "name": "In-state",
    "price": 310, "priceCurrency": "USD", "olf:tuitionBasis": "olf:PerCreditHour",
    "validThrough": "2026-12-31", "olf:eligibleAudience": { /* in-state */ }, "olf:provenance": { /* … */ } },
  { "@type": "olf:TuitionPriceSpecification", "name": "In-state",
    "price": 325, "priceCurrency": "USD", "olf:tuitionBasis": "olf:PerCreditHour",
    "validFrom": "2027-01-01", "olf:eligibleAudience": { /* in-state */ }, "olf:provenance": { /* … */ } }
]

Publishing a future rate early lets subscribers switch on the right day. Keep expired rates with their validThrough date. They become your price history.

Validator

JSON Schema for your build

curl -O https://olfeed.org/schema/olf-1.0.json
npx ajv-cli validate --spec=draft2020 -s olf-1.0.json -d olf.json

- name: Validate program feed
  run: |
    curl -sO https://olfeed.org/schema/olf-1.0.json
    npx --yes ajv-cli validate --spec=draft2020 -s olf-1.0.json -d public/olf.json

Schema file: /schema/olf-1.0.json (draft).

Keeping it current

• Produce it from the same source as your pages. If your tuition page comes from a CMS field or a catalog system, output the feed from that same field. Then the two can't drift apart.
• Change olf:feedVersion on every publish. Open Learning Feed compares versions to decide what changed and whom to notify.
• Update olf:verifiedDate when someone confirms a value, even if it didn't change. Values unconfirmed for a year get flagged.
• Mark closures with status, not deletion. Set olf:TeachOut or olf:Discontinued so affiliates take the program down. A program that simply disappears looks like an error.

Your dashboard

Subscriber names are invented for illustration.

Questions