Adding an RSS Feed to Your WebTycho Classroom Using Grazr


Deborah Schroeder
Senior Instructional Support Specialist
Center for Support of Instruction
Published: March-April 2010

Category: » Tech-skills-software » Rss

1. Navigate to a site that contains an RSS feed so that you can copy the URL of the feed. (Note: If you see the RSS iconon the Web page, the Web site offers an RSS feed).

Some Web sites may not post the RSS icon on their Web pages; however, if you look at the browser's toolbar, you will see the RSS feed icon in the URL locater.

2. To get the URL of the feed, you can click on the RSS feed icon. Clicking on the RSS feed icon will open the RSS feed in another Web page. (NOTE: It does not matter if the RSS icon is located on the page or in the URL location bar.)

Copy the URL by highlighting the URL, then pressing Ctrl+C on the keyboard. (Mac users press Command+C.)

3. Navigate to the Grazr feed widget creator.

4. Paste the URL that you copied into the Enter the URL of a feed or OPML file field (located below Create your FREE widget Now!) by pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard (Mac users press Command+V).

5. Click the Create Widget button.

Your newly created RSS widget will open in a new screen.

You can customize the look of your widget by changing the widget settings in the Customize Your Widget area of the screen.

6. Copy the widget's embed code by highlighting the embed code in the Publish Your Widget area of the screen, then pressing Ctrl+C or Command+C.

7. Navigate to your WebTycho classroom and create a new Course Content item (Faculty Center-->Create Text). (NOTE: You can put your RSS feed widget in Conferences as well.)

8. Add a title for your content in the Link Text field, then select View-->HTML View from the Text Formatting Editor menu bar.

9. Paste (Ctrl+V or Command+V) the Grazr widget embed code that you copied earlier into the text box and click the Submit button.

10. Click the link of your newly created item to ensure that the RSS feed widget is working correctly.

11. If your RSS feed widget is working correctly, you will see the embedded feed in your document.

If your RSS feed widget does not appear to be functioning properly, it is recommended that you return to Grazr and copy the embed code again. Then return to your Course Content item and paste in the code you just copied.

About the Author(s)

Deb has been with UMUC for over 22 years. She spent four years in Undergraduate Admissions prior to moving to the Graduate School. While working in General Management Programs, Deb became fascinated with technology and pursued an education in computer science. Upon completing her degree in Management Information Systems, she became a Distance Education Coordinator in 1999. Deb now resides in the Center for Support of Instruction (CSI) as a Senior Instructional Support Specialist and is the site manager for the DE Oracle @ UMUC.

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