- From the course home page, turn on editing mode.
- Find the Add a block menu (at the bottom of the right column by default). Select Remote RSS feeds from the drop-down list.
- The new block should now appear just above the Add a block menu. By default, it is named Remote News Feed.
- Select the editing icon in the new Remote News Feed block.
- On the Configuring a Remote News Feed block page, you need to configure a few options. Let's start by adding the feed to the Moodle news feeds library. Below the Choose the feeds menu, select the Add/Edit Feeds link.
- The next screen will enable you to add a new feed to the feed library. Click the Add a new feed.
- The Add a new feed page allows you to add a new news feed to the site. Find the feed URL of the news source that you want to add to the site. For the Discovery News site, I went to http://www.news.discovery.com and found the link for the RSS feed. Copy the URL into the Feed URL text box.
- Each RSS feed supplies its own name for the feed. In this example, the name is Discovery News—Top Stories. If you want to replace the name for the feed with one of your own, then put your own name in the Feed Name text box. If you leave it blank, Moodle will use the name supplied by the feed itself.
- If you want to enable other course's authors to use the same news feed, then select Yes in the Shared Feed option.
- Click Add a new feed to save your feed.
- Back on the Manage all my feeds page, select the course name from the cookie crumbs at the top of the screen.
- Select the editing button on your Remote News Feed block again.
- Now we can configure the block for the feed we just created. The Display each link's description? setting allows you to select whether the description text is displayed along with the news item headline. Setting this to Yes will make the block longer, but will provide more information to a reader in deciding whether to select the link or not.
- The Max number of entries to show per block determines how many new entries will be displayed in the block. I would recommend leaving this to the default 5 entries to start with, and then adjust later.
- In the Choose the Feed menu, select the Discovery News feed we just created. You can select multiple feeds to display in one block, if you choose to do so. The block will combine them in a sequential order.
- The Title field determines the title of the block on the page. Usually you will want to give the block the same name as the feed itself.
- The next setting allows you to choose whether to display a link to the feed itself. This displays a Source Site link to allow users to go directly to the feed to add it to their own feed readers if they choose. Usually you would set this to Yes.
- The Channel image is a branding image provided by the feed to display a logo for the source provider. The logo provides a clear indication of the source of the news feed. Unless company policy prohibits this, I would set this to Yes.
- Now we can set where the block appears. The Page Contexts menu has two options. The Display on Course: Community of Practice only option will put the block only on the main page. The other option Display on Course: Community of Practice and any pages within it will display the block on every page in the course.
- You can further refine where the block appears with the Restrict to these page types menu selection. In this case, the block will display only if the course is set to any one particular topics format, such as any course format, the course page, or any page.
- The default region sets the default display column for the block. You can choose whether the block displays on the left or right side by default. Course authors or users could move the block if they choose to.
- The default weight determines the order in which the block will be displayed. The lower the weight, the higher on the page the block will appear. Values range from -10 to +10.
- Finally, you can set where the block appears on the current page by setting the visibility, region, and weight for the specific page.
- Select Save changes when you have finished configuring your block. The Discovery News block with link description, channel link, and channel image is pictured as follows.
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