In my current position of instructing, we teach in an accelerated, asynchronous environment. Included in the courses are "live chat" sessions. Student can attend the true, live chat session on its presentation day or choose to access and review the archive of the session at their leisure 24/7 within the weekly parameters for a given topic. I have found that few people attend the live chat session at its initial taping. I have experimented with various times and days to hold these sessions, but never have more than 20% of a given class attend. All of the student must either attend the live chat or review the archive because there is an assignment associated with each live chat. The questions is: Should one or more of these sessions be mandatory? This is a difficult question because there are pro and cons on both sides. AS the instructor, it can be disheartening to give a "lecture" with so few in attendance. On the other hand, one of the primary reasons students take an online, asynchronous course is for its flexible schedule. What do you think? Raymond Lombardi