What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and provides a convenient way for you to receive content "feeds" from a variety of sources straight to your desktop.

When you subscribe to an RSS feed (or channel), new stories and updates are automatically delivered to you the moment they are published.

In order to subscribe to feeds, you need to download news reader software or use a Web-based news reader. This allows you to access all your feeds in one convenient location.

You can often tell an RSS feed when you see this icon:

RSS/News Aggregators

RSS/News Readers (also called Aggregators) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for use including:

• Google Reader
• iGoogle
• Bloglines
• Newsgator
• NetVibes
• My Yahoo!

To view one of the Board of Studies feeds in your RSS Reader:

1. Copy the URL/shortcut that corresponds to the topic that interests you.
   * Note: A list of all the available feeds are displayed on the right column of every page.

2. Paste the URL into your reader. Below are brief explanations on how to add RSS feeds in some common RSS/News Aggregators.

   

   In Google Reader, click on the 'Add subscription' link on the left hand navigation menu. Paste the feed url into the link textbox to add the feed.

   
   

   

   In iGoogle, click on the 'Add Stuff' link on the right hand side, then click on the Add feed or gadget on the left hand side. Paste the URL into the pop-up box.

   
   

   

   In Bloglines, click on the Add link on the left hand side of the Feeds tab. Paste the feed url into the Blog or feed URL textbox to add the feed.

   
   

   

   In the online RSS Reader in Newsgator, click on the Add Feeds link in the top menu. Then select the URL & Import option in the menu and paste the feed url into the Feed URL textbox to add the feed.

   
   

   

   In Netvibes, click on the 'Add Content' link on the top left hand side of the page and then click on the 'Add a feed' link. Paste the feed url into the link textbox to add the feed.

   
   

   

   In My Yahoo!, click on the 'Personalize this page' tab on the top menu of the main page and then click on 'Add RSS feed'. Paste the feed url into the link textbox to add the feed.

3. You can normally set in the reader application how many articles in the RSS feed you wish to display at any one time.
4. Your RSS Reader will obtain and display existing articles from the RSS Feed.
5. Whenever new articles are published by the Board of Studies for the RSS feed, your reader will automatically obtain and display them for you.

Board of Studies RSS Feeds

You can subscribe to different Board of Studies RSS Feeds by clicking on the icon.

Note: Internet Explorer 6 users will need to use the copy-and-paste technique described above to add the RSS Feed URL to an RSS Reader.

A drop-down box will allow you to select what RSS/News Aggregators you wish to associate with the RSS feed. It is also possible to select a default RSS/News Aggregator so that RSS feeds automatically use the selected RSS/News Aggregator in the drop-down in the future. This can be done by selecting the 'Always use < Your RSS/News Aggregator > to subscribe to feeds.' checkbox.

There are several different types of Board of Studies RSS Feeds. For example, subscribing to the 'Full Mode' RSS feed subscribes a user to every article published in all categories by the Board of Studies. If a user subscribes to the 'Years 7-10' RSS feed then they will only receive articles which are published in the Years 7-10 category. Similarly if a user subscribes to the History RSS Feed they will receive all articles published in the History category only.