Avenue Help Centre | Remote RSS Feeds Block

Enhancing Course Interactivity and Content with Blocks - Stage 3

Remote RSS Feeds Block

Margarita Berezyanskaya

Last Update 8 days ago

The Remote RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds block enables the addition of dynamic content to the course from external websites. This block displays feeds from other websites such as news headlines, blogs or podcasts, and when the information on the source site changes, the block updates as well, to show the latest information. One or more RSS feed(s) can be added to a course. The Remote RSS feeds block is an effective way to refresh course content regularly, while at the same time bring in relevant content. By default, 15 comments are displayed in this block. Instructors can delete comments. The person who posted the comment can also remove his or her own comment.

Exemplar

An example of a Remote RSS feeds block is found in the Stage 2/3 Exemplar course. It displays CBC News Headlines.

Finding RSS Feeds for a Course

RSS feeds can be found by using an online search engine such as Google and including "RSS" in the keyword search terms. RSS feeds can also be located by browsing the websites of major media outlets, e.g. CBC, and looking for their RSS feeds. Many social media sites also provide RSS feeds, e.g. blogs and podcasts, and many of these are designed for ESL/EFL audiences. Here are a few web pages with RSS feeds that may be of use to LINC programs:

You will need the URL for the RSS Feed you want. The page content may look incomprehensible.

Adding a Remote RSS Feeds Block to a Course

On your course, Toggle Edit mode on.

Click the Block drawer tab (below and to the right of the Edit mode toggle) to show the course blocks.

Press the Add a block button to open a list of blocks to choose from.

On the pop-up, click Remote RSS feeds link.

Configuring the Remote RSS Feeds Block

The Add RSS feeds block window appears.

In the Block settings window, you can:

Select an existing RSS feed from the list or add a new feed by choosing Add new RSS feed.

Adjust Show descriptions for entries to Yes if you want both article titles and their descriptions displayed.

Set the Entries to display number to control how many articles appear in the block.

Enable Show source link if available to include a link to the RSS Feed's page.

Enable Show channel image if available to display the feed’s banner image when available.

Click Save changes to apply the settings.

Selecting from feed list

Adding a new feed

The new RSS feed block appears at the bottom of the right hand Block drawer.

Note: Feed web site addresses usually end in ".xml" or ".rss", rather than ".ca", ".com", etc.

The RSS feed is displayed, showing the name of the selected RSS source site as the title, with its updated content below.