Getting to Know Web Syndication

How often you have come across terms like Web syndication, RSS feeds, Web feeds? I think quite a lot in the past few years. These are the words that grabbed my attention too but not enough to look out for them at the first instance (I blame the procrastinator in me for it). Now, I feel that a lot has been said and talked about them and they can no longer be ignored in the context of Web. This article is an attempt to collate my understanding on syndication and related aspects; in the whole process, I feel I will myself better be able to consolidate my thoughts and awareness around this topic.
Think of Web syndication as backbone of the very popular use of ‘feeds,’ in today’s context. Let’s look at it like this – You visit a ‘technical gadgets review’ blog and the entries therein interest you. You think that the upcoming blog posts might also talk of information and analysis that will be worthy of note. So, what you do next is subscribe to this blog (via feeds). As a result, whenever any update occurs on that blog, you get to know of it via your browser. Many of us do it, many of us don’t. Many of us understand the ‘How’ behind it, many of us don’t.

What is it?

Web syndication refers to making content of one Web site available to multiple other Web sites. Sometimes also known as ‘subscribing,’ it is a feature that enables the end users to read updates from different Web sites without visiting each one of them individually.

How does that happen?

Web syndication is about making feeds available from a Web site. People can subscribe to these feeds and keep themselves updated of the latest information on a Web site for which they have subscribed the feeds.

What are feeds?

Feeds, RSS, RSS feeds, XML feeds, syndicated content, syndicated feed, and Web feeds are words that mean the same thing. Yes, they are synonyms in the technical Web jargon and refer to a file, an XML document, containing frequently updated content posted on a Web site. It can contain either summary (with link to the full text) or full text of the updated content, plus related metadata such as publishing dates and authorship details. You can consider feeds as Web pages that are meant to be read by computers and not people. These XML files are formatted in a way to be read by feed readers or aggregators. (Hold that thought right there; we’ll look at feed readers in a while.)

There are mainly two formats in which feeds appear: RSS (really simple syndication) and Atom. Both the formats are based on XML and are constantly being updated with new versions. (I am intentionally skipping the technicalities that make the two different.)

What is the difference between a feed and a Web site?

A feed might have the same content as the Web pages of a Web site however in a different format. In addition, the feed gives you access to the content that is posted or updated since you last visited the feed---this helps you view only the new content, unlike a Web site.

Who publishes feeds?

Anyone who publishes content on a Web site can publish a feed. The publisher can publish a single feed for an entire Web page or multiple feeds relating to different sections of a Web page.

For which Web sites are feeds used?

Feeds are used the most for blogs and news Web sites for the obvious reason that their Web pages are updated with content frequently; however, feeds are also used to deliver other digital content such as audios, videos and pictures. (Podcasting also uses feeds.)

How to use feeds?

To use feeds, one needs to:

1. have a feed reader and
2. subscribe to the feeds.

What is a feed reader?

It is a specialized software application that checks the feeds and provides the end user with all the updates made to a Web site(s). It is designed to read feeds from multiple sources/Web sites. In short, a typical feed reader will, for the subscribed Web pages, check the updates, download them, and provide a user interface for end users to read the updates.

Are there different kinds of feed readers?

Yes, there are primarily five types of feed readers:

1. Web-based feed readers (e.g., Google reader, MyYahoo): If you want to read all your feeds within your Web browser, go for the Web-based feed reader. It allows you to access your feed subscriptions from any computer. You just need to sign in to the Web site that manages your feeds.
   
   
2. Desktop feed readers (e.g., FeedDemon and FeedReader for Windows): If you want to read all your feeds apart from your browser, you need to install a desktop feed reader. It has technically advanced features than a Web-based feed reader. It allows you to download and store the updates on the computer that has this reader installed, even if you are offline. While selecting this feed reader, choose the one that works well with your computer because different feed readers work well on different operating systems.
   
   
3. Browser built-in feed readers (e.g., Firefox’s Live Bookmarks, IE7’s Feeds and Favorites): New browsers, such as Firefox, IE7, Opera, or Safari, have built-in feed readers.
   
   
4. Email-based feed readers (Google Alerts, Mozilla Thunderbird): If you want all your feeds delivered via your email, get the email-based feed readers.
   
   
5. Mobile feed readers (Google mobile, yahoo mobile): If you want to read your feeds on your mobile device, getting this one would be a good idea.

Which software to install?

If you wish to read your feeds on a computer and not very keen on a specific format (say, email), you need not install or download any software provided you use any of the modern browsers such as IE 7, Firefox, or Safari. These browsers provide support for the feeds. For example, in IE7, if you activate the Commands Bar, you will see the RSS feed icon at the second position from left. This icon usually appears grey however turns orange if the Web site you are exploring offers feeds. On the other hand, while using Firefox, you will experience that if a Web page contains feeds, the Web address bar will show the orange icon against it. In Safari, you will see a blue RSS logo at the right side of the address bar if the Web page contains feeds. These modern Web browsers receive feeds from their toolbars using Live Bookmarks, Favorites, and so on.

How to subscribe to feeds?

You can subscribe to feeds related to a Web slice (one section of a Web page that is frequently updated and has a feed associated with it) or whole of the Web page. (Note: When you add a Web slice to the favorites bar, you automatically subscribe to its feed.) You just need to click the feed button to subscribe to the related feeds. This is, usually, an orange button with a white dot surrounded by two quarter circular strands. (Sometimes, the feed button is in the form of a blue colored RSS icon—yes, by that name itself.) Clicking it opens the Web page with the content and an option of subscribing wherein you can add the Web page to your Favorites or Bookmarks as well, depending on the browser you use.

When subscribing to a feed, your browser also gives you an option of selecting the interval for checking the updates. So, you can get updates after a specific time interval that you set for your browser.

After subscribing to the feeds on single or multiple Web sites, your browser (built-in feed reader) will check and download all the updates, and you can read those in your own sweet, convenient time.

How much does it cost?

It usually does not cost to subscribe to feeds. Also, most of the feed readers are free however some downloadable desktop and mobile feed readers can cost somewhere around $20-$50.

This article is just the tip of the iceberg called Web syndication. There is so much more to it in terms of current uses and future possibilities for individuals, business owners, and academic circles. I hope that this article helped you au fait about fundamentals of web syndication.

Writing Effective Assignments

Although assignments appear at the end of each learning module, interestingly they are created before their preceding module content (text and media included).

After freezing the goals of a learning content, assignments are created, which is followed by the development of the reading content. Doing so ensures that (a) the assignments map to the goals or objectives of the learning content and (b) the reading content is streamlined and includes all the necessary information that the students need to be able to do the assignments.

For a content developer or an instructional designer, developing effective assignments ensures that the course goals are met and students develop competencies that the course promises. From my experience as an instructional designer, I feel the following guidelines can help you write effective assignments.

Work backward from the goals. While designing the assignment, remind yourself of the goals of the learning content. Think of the answers or solutions you would expect the students to produce in the assignment. Now think how to write the assignment so that the students are able to reach that answer or solution. Think what prerequisite(s) the students will need to perform the assignment in a manner that they get full grades for it---any information or job aid or sample, reasons of doing the assignment, where the assignment fits in the whole curriculum, what format to produce the assignment in, any word limits or length restrictions to the assignment, due date, grading criteria, and so forth. Include all these prerequisites as a part of the assignment. Working backwards from the goals ensures that (a) the assignment maps to the goals and (b) students are judged on the competencies that the course offers to develop.

Consider the skill level. When the course competencies and goals, say of an engineering-based course, are about enabling the students to apply (Bloom 3) the concepts of engineering in the field of robotics, you cannot put an assignment that asks students to create a robotic arm (Bloom 5) or write equations that govern the movement of a robotic arm (Bloom 1). Design the assignment so that it matches the desired skill level that a student is expected to achieve after going through the learning content.

Be specific: Writing vague, broad-ended (mind you not open-ended) questions would produce similar results. The students will respond likewise---with vague, broad, and varied answers. This not only makes the assessment of the assignment difficult, but also hampers the assignment mapping to the lesson goals or objectives.

Your assignment needs a precise direction---provide it yourself. Specify the students exactly what they need to do. For example,
Ineffective assignment: Comment on any one aspect of your choice in the Roman Empire.
Effective assignment: Identify four reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Explain each of the reasons. Document your response in a word document of not more than 1000 words. The assignment is due on Day X.

Give in details. Your students should be able to understand the assignment completely without asking for much help around. Do not leave room for assumptions, interpretations, and intuition-work by the students. They should be told what to do (steps, format, and naming convention of the assignment), why to do (purpose of the assignment), when to do (deliverable date of the assignment), for whom to do (expected audiences for the assignment; e.g., they should know whether they need to create a memo for their manager or an editorial for their local newspaper), and the associated brownies (grades and their split-up). In addition, the context building, if needed, should be elaborate and guide the student towards a specific answer. Remember that a detailed assignment guides students to specific answers, which in turn enable them to earn appropriate grades for the assignment.

Build relevant context or scenario. Place the assignment in the context of a typical job setting that a student will encounter after taking the course. For a student of fashion retail management, an assignment revolving around Sears or Macy’s or Ann Taylor (for devising an ‘effective sales strategy for the next season merchandise’) will help the him or her get the real feel of on-the-job experience and therefore make the student more prepared for the life after school. If, for this student, you build the assignment in the scenario of an automobile company (for devising an ‘effective sales strategy for their next model’), it would be irrelevant. Although the skill that the student would exhibit under the two scenarios would be the same (devising an effective sales strategy for products), using the relevant scenario (a) places the student in the shoes of the person he or she will likely become after taking the course, (b) checks the relevance of competency developed after taking the course, and (c) addresses the goals of the course in a better way.

Spread a long assignment across weeks. If you plan to include a lengthy assignment, it is wiser to split it up across different weeks and ask the students to execute its subparts each week. Such an assignment works well if it is a build-on type of an assignment; for example, if the course is on ‘Business Plans’ and the course objective states that the students will be able to build their own Business Plan after taking the course, a good assignment will be to ask them create a Sample Business Plan for a specific business and need. The business plan has many parts to it and creating all of it in one assignment or week might be stressful for the students; therefore, such an assignment can be spread over the weeks. Each week the student can be asked to create different parts of the business plan and in the last week, the student can be asked to compile the work of all weeks and improve or finalize it to submit a completed Sample Business Plan. This way, a lengthy assignment can be retained and the student load can also be balanced.

Weigh and word the assignment grading carefully. For each task, sub-task, and sub-sub-task that a student is asked to perform in the assignment, there should be a corresponding grading criteria. In addition, the grading points associated with each grading criteria should consider the effort and understanding that the particular task demands. The sum of grading points of all grading criteria is the total grade point of an assignment. In addition, word the grading criteria so that it maps to the task listed in the assignment. The verbs used in the grading criteria should map to the verbs used to perform the tasks. For example, if a task in an assignment is to “Provide at least two reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the statement ‘XYZ’.”, then the corresponding grading criteria can be worded as “The student should have provided at least two reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the given statement.” All tasks in the assignments should have a respective grading criterion and vice versa---students should not be assessed on anything not mentioned in the assignment. Doing it ensures that the students know what to do to achieve what.

Write inclusive instructor or facilitator notes. Often, instructors or facilitators of a learning course are not subject matter experts. They might just be responsible for holding or conducting a class or learning session with a set of notes provided by the educational facility. Therefore, your instructor or facilitator notes should contain detailed answers to the assignments and reasons for every trivial question and subparts of the assignment. Do not presume that the facilitator will know most of the stuff for a simple subject---just write as if the facilitator is going to need a lot of your help and so provide it at once in abundance.