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RSS Feeds in Blackboard

What is RSS?

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a means of having new content sent to you on a regular basis. It’s like newspaper being delivered to your door every morning. This way, you don’t need to keep visiting a site to see whether new content has been added.

Why Would I Want This for My Course?

RSS feeds exist for a variety of topics and publications. If your class, for instance, was following the fashion, you could include a feed to The Times Fashion Feed, which is listed on the The Times website. This feed would show links to up-to-the-minute fashion updates.

How Do RSS Feeds Work?

Most web sites today have RSS feeds that allow articles to be collected and read within an RSS reader.

Where Do I Find an RSS Reader?

Current browsers and some email programs (e.g. Microsoft Outlook 2007) now act as RSS readers. Blackboard works as a RSS Reader. When RSS feed links are added to a Blackboard course by means of the process below, links to articles dynamically appear as site content is updated.

How Many RSS Feeds Are Available?

RSS feeds exist for a limitless number of topics. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Association) and the BBC (British Broadcasting Association) are examples of news sites that provide RSS. There are also sites, such as Feedster and Syndic8.com that are devoted to helping you find RSS feeds.

Getting Started: Bringing an RSS Feed Into Blackboard

  1. Find an RSS Feed.

    Quite often, a Google search of your topic and RSS will yield effective results. A web site that has an RSS feed will typically display icons such as:

    • RSS (symbol) icon
    • RSS (text) icon
    • XML (text) icon

  2. Generate the RSS Code.

    RSS feeds require a special reader in order to read them – much like how email can only be received and read through an email program. Blackboard can act like a RSS reader by adding some simple Javascript. Luckily, no programming is required! The following web site will generate the necessary code for you: http://resources.online.nwtc.edu/rss/build.php

    1. Right-click the RSS feed link.
    2. Select Copy Link Location.
    3. Paste link into the URL text box. The only setting changes you should make are:
      1. Use HTML in item display?, select Yes
      2. Target links in the new window? replace n with y.
    4. Click on Generate JavaScript button.
    5. Select all of the text, right-click, and select copy.
    6. Cut and Paste the Generated RSS Code.
    7. Go to a control panel and select a content area (e.g. Course Documents).
    8. Click on Add Item icon.
    9. Name the item.
    10. Click on HTML view on the text editor:
    11. Paste code into large textbox, and then click on Submit.