Higher Ed

Okay, so this post is probably better named "Scholar Tip #1" since I have never posted any Scholar tips before. But there are way more than 272 of them. I just gotta find the time to write them all up! Anyway . . .

Tip #272: Just about every view in Scholar is available through RSS?

If you’re reading blogs, RSS probably isn’t a new concept to you. If you need an RSS refresher, though, check out this fun intro video called RSS in Plain English to get up to speed, and then peruse some of the other RSS resources bookmarked in Scholar. 

When you’re looking at any set of bookmarks in Scholar — like, say, the bookmarks of Greg Ritter or a search for all bookmarks tagged mashup — you’ll notice a funky little orange icon in the title bar of the view. It looks like this:

That’s the standard icon for an RSS feed. Yeah, orange is the standard color. Doesn’t really go well with that green background, does it? Makes me think of certain teams, when my loyalties lie elsewhere. Note to self: have the UI designer change the color from green to maroon.

What you see when you click on an RSS icon depends on what browser you’re using. If you’re using a contemporary browser, like Firefox 2, Safari 2, or Internet Explorer 7 you’ll see basically the same content, nicely formatted. If you’re using an older browser, you might just see the raw XML. In any event, the RSS feed is the content from that page formatted in a standard way that other websites or tools can deal with.

So why do you care? Because having Scholar views available as RSS feeds means that you can use the URL for that feed to include content from Scholar is lots of other places. Let’s look at a few examples.

Do you know about Ask Dr. C?

Many of the client moderators (a.k.a. “the doctors”) who participate in Ask Dr. C describe it as a “community of clients helping clients.” It’s such a tremendously helpful resource that I try to tell everyone I can about it, because it just shouldn’t be a secret.

The next time you have a question about using any Blackboard solution—the Blackboard Learning System (including CE and Vista), the Blackboard Content System, the Blackboard Community System, the Blackboard Transaction System, the Blackboard Portfolio—or about e-Learning in general, I’d like to invite you to give Ask Dr. C a try.

So what is it?

The excitement surrounding this year’s BbWorld Commerce gathering in Carefree, Arizona has now been carried by the several hundred conference participants back to their home campuses.

We experienced perfect weather last week. And the resort in Carefree, located just northeast of Phoenix, provided us with spectacular views and hospitality while 300 or so of us met and shared what is happening on-campus and within Blackboard.

More than 300 Blackboard Commerce Suite clients and partners have converged here at the Carefree Resort and Villas in Carefree, AZ, for BbWorld Commerce ’07—the Blackboard users conference dedicated solely to users of the Blackboard Commerce Suite.

For four days (April 15–18), clients have been meeting with their peers, sharing best practices, hearing from campus card industry leaders and learning about the latest product innovations from Blackboard. I wish you were here, but if you were unable to join us in Carefree this year, let me tell you what’s been happening.

Addressing the deficiencies of higher education in light of the pressures of globalization and the information economy are driving many very pointed recommendations for higher education reform. While US colleges and universities are carrying on their role in research and scholarship, their ability to attract, retain and graduate new students is being challenged by college student mobility, low high school graduation rates, high school dropouts, and ill prepared high school students across all demographics.