student engagement Business & Marketing Coursework

The challenge is student engagement.
Framed in the language of management, the question becomes, How do I motivate students to attend the voluntary synch sessions.
Here are some background comments and constraints.
1) Our school requires Synch sessions. The argument is that direct engagement with a "real" professor a major reason people attend our school. By real, I mean full-time professors instead of adjunct faculty or graduate assistants. I agree with this argument. Indeed at one point, I proposed to the administration that we adopt the slogan "real professors teaching real students." Yes, the number of faculty who are independent contractors is large and growing. It's growing at GW but at a slower pace than most other schools.
2) Grading is necessary but difficult. Tests are very skewed in the direction of rewarding memorization, not understanding. Many management/leadership concepts are abstract. Conversation is a powerful aid to understanding.
3) It's summertime, students are distributed across the globe in different time zones. The schedule is at best compromise.
4) The time zone problem is a big reason for not making the sessions mandatory. But the bigger reason is my distaste for the idea the I am responsible for forcing students to learn what I have to teach them. I became a professor in large part because I do not like being "bossed." I do not like being bossed and do not like bossing others.
So here is the challenge:
Earn 5 points by offering a thoughtful commentary on how best to meet the challenge. Here is another way to express the challenge "How does a professor use non-coercive incentives/policies to increase student engagement in a fast-moving summer class - a class that is mandatory for the majority of students enrolled.
Submit a 1-2 paragraph answer.
Earn a full 5 points for submitting a viable proposal. Earn 3 points for a reasonable effort, even if the idea cannot be fully implemented.