COVID-19, Increased Webinars and What Counts for Human Capital Development among Academics in Higher Education Institutions

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.