Online connections: Designing virtual seminars for academic knowledge transfer

Abstract

Research seminars are a crucial aspect of academic careers and professional development, especially in the field of tourism and hospitality scholarship. The COVID-19 pandemic forced researchers into isolation and resulted in the cancellation of face-to-face academic seminars, conferences, and events. To continue academic knowledge transfer and research collaborations, an online seminar series called Iso-CHATS was created. The design of Iso-CHATS was theoretically informed by the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), a framework focusing on maximising the uptake of messages through communication. The series became very popular and extended to a 2-year period throughout 2020 and 2021, attracting over 400 participants from 15 countries. This paper reports on the design of Iso-CHATS through the application of the ELM for academic knowledge transfer. The leaders of Iso-CHATS prioritised four factors for enhancing the uptake of messages: information quality, source credibility, interaction, and accessibility. This research challenges existing conceptions of the ELM, showing how messages are received and understood by participants in an online seminar environment. This study is important because it highlights how to design research events to enhance knowledge transfer outcomes and support wellbeing through collegial online connections.