COVID-19, Increased Webinars and What Counts for Human Capital
Development among Academics in Higher Education Institutions
Abstract
The advent of COVID-19 came with precautionary measures to curtail its
widespread among people. One of these measures is restrained
public/social gatherings and lockdown of airports with implications for
transportation of persons. The impact of this on academics is that they
are not able to travel for conferences, seminars, workshops and
lectures. Yet, opportunities for virtual conferences have been opened
and multiplied. Barring the challenges of data cost and internet
accessibility, academics are able to attend multiple, most often,
registration free virtual human capital development meetings. The
emergent challenge remains that of identifying virtual meetings for
attendance that will raise no dust as there are presently no known
minimal parameters for determining preferred ones by higher education
institutions appointments and promotions committee and selection panels.
This study utilized the interpretive research paradigm using data from
five senior scholars identified criteria for selecting webinars that
would count for appointment and promotions determination purposes among
academics in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The study identified
nine criteria that would be of value to academics in determining whether
to attend or add webinars on their curriculum vita for human capital
indices determination.