I think it'd be great to have a chatroom where everyone could talk about their online college experiences in real time. Only if that would be cool with everyone since some people are shakey with the idea of chatrooms. But I think it'd be helpful for everyone, instead of waiting a day or a few days for an answer What do you all think?

Agreed! However, IRC puts a tremendous load on the server, has all sorts of security risks, yada-yada-yada.  From experience I know people either love it or detest it with a passion - there doesn't seem to be much middle ground ;-) 

What really helps, though, is to agree upon a schedule that will be convenient for the most people likely to participate - and make it a fairly broad window for those who will have to come in late or leave early. 

Actually, my mailing list subscribers read that little tidbit about scheduling, then sort of improvised their own 'solution' using a daily two-hour window on tthe mailing list (5:30-7:30 PM Pacific time so it wou;dn't bee too late for those of us on the east coast); that worked great!  We eventually included moring and weekends sessions, and added 'windows' at reasonable hours for our European and Australian subscribers.

So pick a time and let us know!  It will take a few days to a couple of weeks for the word to get to the subscribers who don't read these forums every day. (Depending on their default configuration, everybody might have to refresh their browser every few minutes for the latest messages to be updated on screen.)

 

I have to be honest, the older I get, the less interested I am in live chat. My Internet career began as a paid chat host for the Microsoft Network in the Teen Forum back in 1996...

I might just be burned out from having spent a good portion of those subsequent years chatting online with folks from all over the U.S. (and kickeing out the perverts that would try to pose as teenagers - grrrrrr) ... although, I do admit I made many good friends and surprisingly deep connections with those people.

Interesting suggestion, Chanel, thanks. I'll bring it up to the "powers that be" and see if it might be a feature we can add.

Thanks for chiming in too, henryw. 

As a new member, I was just looking for the chatroom and was surprised to not see one available.

Agreed! that's the one thing this site should work on. Besides that, I think you are doing a great job.

Personally, as a full time worker and student I really only have time for asynchronous forums.  But ya'll feel free to exchange IM information.

Ahhh, truly we live in a world that expects instant gratification....

-=Steve=-

---

B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress