Today’s job market is highly competitive and commands a high level of expertise and competency. Consequently, that demand places a greater emphasis on the design of training.

Reflect on the training you’ve received during your career. What style of learning motivated you the most? Of the many types of training available, what learning experience challenged you to be attentive and participate? Was it lectures? PowerPoint? Discussions?

How organizations train employees has been dramatically affected by budget cuts, downsizing, and the overall decline in the economy. These challenges force employers to devise new training practices—to innovate fresh learning strategies and methodologies. The good news: These efforts have led to new formats for sharing knowledge and training.

Understanding the Similarities and Differences

Continuous learning takes place continuously, whether we realize it or not. We learn by listening, observing, and teaching. We also learn through formal and informal formats.

It is important to understand the foundation of both of these types of learning to understand better the new trends of learning that are moving to the forefront of training. These terms—formal learning and informal learning—refer to the method used to disseminate or acquire information or knowledge. Each can be done on an individual basis or as a group.

Formal learning is a structured or controlled approach. The facilitator determines the method of teaching as well as the objectives and goals. Training is typically delivered in a traditional classroom setting, revolving around a curriculum designed by a specific group of designers or trainers.

Companies choose formal learning to have more control over the learning experience of their employees. This design process enables the incorporation of specific content that is tailored to fit the particular needs of an organization. Also, once the learner has completed the training, a graded assessment measures the effectiveness of the teaching. Formal learning requires more time and employees, therefore, is more costly.

Informal learning is used to describe nearly anything learned outside of a formal classroom setting. Learning is typically unscheduled, casual and spontaneous. A more relaxed atmosphere is often more personal and less intimidating, and it invites the learner to be active in the learning experience. The content presented is a less structured and rarely instructor-led.

On-the-job training is a close representation of informal learning. It provides learning through talking, discussions, observing others, trial and error, and collaboration, as well as mentoring opportunities while learning. Creating informal learning moments can be less costly, because it utilizes existing materials and relationships, and is typically more time efficient.

Making the Transition

How does an organization move from a traditional formal learning format and embrace an informal structure? It begins with examining emerging learning methods—that may be outside your organization’s comfort zone.

One such method is the community of practices or learning community. Learning communities are groups of people who share a professional interest or background and discuss opportunities, challenges, and feelings related to it. They can meet online, in person, or a combination of both. Examples of a learning community include:

• book clubs

• professional associations

• chamber of commerce

• affinity groups (people that share common demographic characteristics or interests).

Now that we have defined a learning community, how do you grow and cultivate one? Start by following a few simple strategies.

• use internal and external social learning tools and blogs

• provide quick reference guide to help people log in, get started, and teach them how to bookmark and access the sites in their favorites folder

• share success stories in company newsletters (both online and printed versions) about how learning communities have been valuable and helpful

• inform managers about the culture changes needed to support learning communities

• share strategies for becoming engaged and active in a community

• use social software to assist employees to find communities of interest that benefit them both personally and professionally

• network and talk to like-minded colleagues and co-workers.

Related to learning communities is the social learning. The ideology is that learning takes place in a social setting, accomplished by observation, replication, and patterning. In other words, one learns by watching others and designing their behavior based on observations and consequences. This efficacy of this type of learning varies, and the results tend to lean toward behaviors that reflect the values of the learner, as well as the functional value. How innovative to learn by observation! This manner of learning is indeed cost effective.

Just-in-time learning is another informal learning trend. It offers training as it is truly needed, rather than on a routinely scheduled basis. Much of the time, training is conducted based on anticipated needs—with the presumption that perhaps we might have use of a particular tidbit of knowledge sometime in the future. It was to prepare employees “just in case.”

Just-In-time learning, however, requires a shift from predesigned curriculum to an interactive learner setting. When actively engaging the learner, it demands active learning instead of passive learning, therefore, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills are developed and enhanced. Just-in-time learning requires adaptation to the ever changes in technology, resulting in the learner having access to up-to-date information.

Moving Forward

Everyone has experienced formal learning in some way. The most easily recognized example is attending school. Learning communities, social learning, and just-in-time learning represent informal learning. As we navigate through the labyrinth of information, it is important to recognize all of the different learning opportunities available.

Jay Cross, known as the “Informal learning guru” summarizes learning as this: “Formal learning takes place in a classroom;informal learning happens in learnscapes. A learnscape is a learning ecology: learning without borders. Learnscaping involves removing obstacles, seeding communities, increasing bandwidth, encouraging conversation, and growing networks. It is a natural way to learn and grow.”

I hope that I have planted some seeds to either initiate your learnscape or to help cultivate the learnscape that you already have in place.