Special Thanks to our Readers

The ELife Blog Staff would like to recognize our devoted readers with a small gift. If you are a regular reader, we invite you to send an email to ELISuccess@nvcc.edu.  In your response, please provide blog topics that you would like to read.  If you would like, please tell us a past ELife Blog that you found particularly helpful.

The first 50 submissions will receive an ELI coffee mug (pictured above)!  Please provide your student ID, name and current mailing address – we will mail the mug to you. 

We look forward to reading your responses.  Thank you!

Wanted! ELIfe Student Bloggers

Attention ELI students! We're looking for a few good writers to report on "a day in the life of a distance learner" and join our team of ELIfe bloggers. As a student blogger you would share your ELI experience with fellow NOVA students, tell future students about the the benefits and challenges of distance learning and help ELI develop and promote a vibrant Student Life program.

If you enjoy writing, sharing stories, tips and reviews, photos and videos, then you should join our team and share what you know! This is also a great opportunity for English, Marketing or Journalism students to practice your skills and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Interested? Write up a short introduction of yourself explaining your educational goals and why you'd like to be a blogger. Submit your writing to elifeblog@gmail.com for review and I'll get back to you with more details on how to get started. If you have questions, comment to this post. I look forward to hearing from you!

Blog Tip #2: Using Labels & Archives

As we get further into the life of ELIfe, there will be more and more posts available for you to read. Depending on how frequently you check in, you may have missed some--or, you may want to re-find something you read a while back.

One easy way to find the material you are looking for is to use the blog's labels. Each blog post is labeled with keywords that describe its content. And on the right hand column of the blog, if you scroll down a bit, you can see a list of all the labels in the blog. The number in parentheses next to each label is the number of blog posts there have been about that topic.

So, let's say it's about time to register for a new semester, and you want to read all the things we've posted related to academic advising to see if there are any suggestions you should keep in mind as you make your plans. Just click the "academic advising" link under the list of labels, and you'll get all the blog entries that are about that topic. Or, what if you are feeling a bit grumpy and could use a little pick-me-up? Click the "fun" label and look back at some of the fun things we've posted.

Another way to check in on things you've missed is to use the blog archives. Also in the right hand column of the blog, you'll see a list of months. For example, click on "March 2009" and--you guessed it!--you'll see all the entries posted in that month. So, if you've been away for a while, you can quickly catch up by reading the months you missed.

I hope this tip is helpful. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions about the blog? Are you finding it useful so far? What could we do to make it more useful to you?

Blog Tip #1

I am so pleased to see how many of you have visited the blog already. We've had over 300 hits in less than 48 hours. Keep those visits coming!

I know that some of you are probably not very familiar with blogs, so we will give you tips from time to time to make sure you are getting the most out of this one (and any others you decide to read).

One student sent me a question about having trouble posting a comment to the blog, and I'm betting that others of you had the same confusion. When you click the link below a blog post to comment on it (or just to read other people's comments, which I encourage you to do!), you'll see that there is a text box where you can type in your comment. Then, below that, it says "Comment As" and gives you a drop-down menu to choose an identity. If you have a blog yourself, you may have one of the identities listed toward the top of the list. However, please know that you do not need to have one of these identities in order to comment. You have two other ways to comment.

One option is to choose, from this drop-down menu, "Name/URL." When you choose that option, a box will pop up and you will be able to enter your name (you can choose to enter just your first name, or first and last). You will also be able to enter a URL (web address) if you'd like. (For example, maybe you have your own blog, or personal web page, you want people to be able to link to from your comment.) Don't worry if you don't have a URL you want to include--leaving that line blank is no problem. Now, having entered your name and maybe a URL, you can post your comment.

A second option is to post your comment anonymously. Just choose "Anonymous" from the drop-down menu.

I hope this helps any of you who were having trouble posting comments!

Welcome to ELIfe!

You're probably here because you are an ELI student who received an email from the Director of ELI (that's me!) announcing the launch of the new ELI Student blog, ELIfe. Welcome!

I hope you like the blog's name. If you were a student with ELI last semester, you may remember that we had a contest for students to name the blog, then let faculty and staff vote on the 42 (wow!) nominated names. ELIfe, nominated by ELI student James Ward, was the clear winner.

This blog is for you. We at ELI want to have as many ways as possible to reach out to our students and to let you know about all the resources and information we have to help you do your best in your ELI classes and your studies at NOVA overall. We'll have lots of different ELI faculty, staff, and students writing posts for the blog--maybe I'll even ask you to write one!--so there will always be something new to check out.

Please keep on coming back. Read the posts, check out the websites we suggest, add comments to share your thoughts and questions, and take the polls we post. Everyone at ELI is excited about hearing what you have to say!