Frequently asked questions

QGeo is an educational app for learning the geography of Italy: regions, provinces and capitals. It combines an interactive map for the lesson, cards for each territory and quizzes to play alone or with the class.

It's designed for primary and lower secondary school, but anyone who wants to revise the geography of Italy can use it.

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Today QGeo is free and ad-free, for teachers and pupils alike.

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No, it works in the browser: just open the site. It runs on PCs, interactive whiteboards or projectors, tablets and phones too. Maps work with a mouse, a whiteboard pen or fingers.

An internet connection is needed.

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Yes, partly. Without an account you can practise with custom quizzes, play public challenges and those with a code, and browse the cards of regions and provinces.

With a teacher account you can also create and save your quizzes, publish challenges for the class, and use Teaching mode and your colleagues' shared library.

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Borders, official names, abbreviations and areas of regions and provinces come from ISTAT, the Italian national statistics institute (boundaries of administrative units for statistical purposes); population is the resident population by municipality, also from ISTAT, added up by province and region. ISTAT data is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence.

Capital coordinates and English names come from Wikidata (CC0). Coats of arms come from Wikimedia Commons: licence, author and source are given for each one.

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The data is the most recent official data at the time of publication, with its reference date shown on the cards (for example "Inhabitants on 1 January 2026").

When ISTAT publishes a new version, the administrator uploads it, checks the differences and publishes it: maps, quizzes and cards are updated together.

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We use the "generalised" version of ISTAT boundaries, made for maps: it's much lighter and loads quickly even on tablets, while at this scale the differences can't be seen. The areas shown, however, are the official ones.

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Not yet: QGeo stops at the regions, provinces and capitals of Italy. The door is open, though: if a request comes from several people and is considered worthwhile, it may be evaluated and carried out. Write to qgeo@iamasoftware.com.

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With the new data, a quiz that mentions an abolished province is marked "to review" in "My quizzes": when you open it, the choices are already updated and you only need to save it. New provinces appear straight away on maps, quizzes and cards.

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Click on the region or province; click on the capital; choose the capital among several answers; drag the name of the region or province into place; regions or provinces puzzle; type the province abbreviation. Then there's the Italy puzzle, a quiz of its own.

A quiz can mix several kinds of questions.

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Choose the scope (the whole of Italy or one or more regions), the question types, the number of questions (1 to 50), the difficulty and, if you like, a time limit for the whole quiz (2 to 20 minutes). You can add a title, a description and tags to find it again.

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Easy has more help: a second chance worth half a point, the region highlighted in province questions, a wider tolerance when clicking on a capital, sea names on the map and, in puzzles, correct pieces that snap into place.

Hard has a single attempt and a blank map.

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The map of Italy split into rectangular tiles to put back in place: 8 in Easy, with the outline as a guide, and 16 in Hard. Tiles are dragged, or tapped and then placed with a second tap. The score is the share of tiles in the right place.

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Yes. Your quizzes can be edited and duplicated from "My quizzes". From the shared library you can try your colleagues' quizzes and copy them into yours, then adapt them: the copy shows the quiz and author it comes from.

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From one of your quizzes you publish a challenge: QGeo creates a 6-digit code and a QR code to project. Pupils open QGeo, choose "I have a code" and type it, or scan the QR code with the tablet camera.

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A challenge stays active for a number of days set by the administrator (currently 90). You can deactivate it at any time, or regenerate it with a new code, from "Active challenges".

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Yes: with the same code the questions are the same, in the same order, so you can go through them together. Anyone who wants more practice can choose "Practise with new questions" on their own device. Public challenges in the catalogue, instead, give new questions every game.

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No, by design: QGeo collects no data about pupils and doesn't save results. At the end everyone sees their own score, with stars and a summary of the answers, and can show it to the teacher. This way pupils need no accounts or consents.

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Each quiz can be private (only you see it), shared (it appears in the shared library: colleagues can try and copy it, but can't change yours) or public.

A public quiz, besides the library, appears for everyone among the "Available challenges", after the administrator's approval. Your name isn't shown in the public catalogue.

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The administrator tries them before they appear in the catalogue and can decline or withdraw them, telling the author why. If the author edits an approved quiz, it goes back to review.

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With Teaching mode, from the teacher area: the map can go full screen, you enter regions with a click and the territory's card appears beside it. You can show or hide names, abbreviations, capitals and seas, switch to a blank map and annotate with pen, highlighter and text, in seven colours.

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No: they're like a transparent sheet over the map and are cleared when you change territory (QGeo warns you first). If you clear them by mistake, bring them back with "Undo" or Ctrl+Z.

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You sign up with your name, surname, email and password, and confirm the address from the link you receive by email. Then the administrator activates the account: it's a security step that protects the teacher area and the shared library from misuse and abuse. You get an email when the account is active.

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It's a deliberate choice. With email and password you decide which address to sign up with and nobody else knows when you use QGeo; the account stays yours even if you change school, and it works with any address, including your school one.

Signing in with Google or Microsoft, instead, would let the company know every time you use QGeo. And if you sign in with your school account, when you move to another school and that account is closed you would also lose access to your quizzes. Besides, many schools block the use of their accounts in external apps.

We may add sign-in with Google and Microsoft (not with social media) if many teachers ask for it: write to us if you're interested.

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No, pupils have no accounts and give no personal data. Before a quiz they can type an optional name, which stays only in their device's browser and never reaches our servers. Results aren't saved.

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Only the account data (name, surname, email, preferred language) and, if you wish, school and town. QGeo uses only the technical cookie for the login session: no profiling cookies and no third-party analytics. The details are in the privacy notice.

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From your profile you can download all your data in a file and delete your account. Deletion deactivates the account and its challenges immediately; final erasure happens after 30 days, so a mistake can be undone.

Quizzes you had shared or made public remain available to colleagues, with an anonymous author; private quizzes are deleted.

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To qgeo@iamasoftware.com. We're also glad to read proposals for improvements and collaborations: if a request comes from several people and is considered worthwhile, it may be evaluated and carried out.

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