I recently visited Josh Bersin’s blog, where I found an article about the formalization of informal learning. At first glance, I found it interesting, and after reading it carefully, I think that the formalization of informal learning is highly likely to become a trend in the development of e-learning. I have borrowed from the article and provided excerpts of its ideas here, and hope that it will be a useful reference for everybody as they carry out training development.
Josh Bersin suggested that in order to establish a high-impact, cost-effective, modern training organization, you must formally adopt informal learning.  From surveys conducted by Bersin & Associates last year, it was found that:
• 78% of corporate managers believe that “rapid rate of information change” is one of their top learning challenges (800+ HR and L&D managers surveyed in 2008).
• 80% of all corporate learning takes place through on-the-job interactions with peers, experts, and managers (estimated data collected from over 1,100 L&D managers late in 2008).
• Over 30% of all corporate training programs (ie. classroom or other formal programs) are not delivering any measurable value (data provided through the same survey).
• Nearly all Millenial employees (under the age of 25) expect to find an on-demand learning portal (similar to Google and YouTube) within their employer’s environment.
In addition, Bersin & Associates’ research members listed “how to build a learning culture which promotes informal and manager-driven learning in our organization” as the top research need for 2009, indicating the high level of importance that is being placed on informal learning.

   Where “e-learning” was the big craze in corporate training in the early 2000s, and “blended learning” was the craze in 2003 and 2004, today, thanks to the slowing down of the economy and the widespread availability of social networking and online wikis and portals, “informal learning” is the next big thing in corporate training.

   And best of all, an informal learning strategy saves money.  By empowering people to publish their expertise and learn from each other, you can naturally cut spending on content development, external content, and formal training, and focus energy on high-priority training programs in the organization.

   As for how to make informal learning formal, Bersin suggested three steps to be taken within an organization for the purpose of making training more practical and valuable. The three steps are:

1. Redefine the role of the corporate manager. Corporate training managers are no longer only developers and deliverers of training, but rather the facilitators and champions.  Informal learning content is owned and delivered by everyone else in your organization, not just by the corporate training manager or trainers.  The corporate training manager or trainer’s role is to create the systems and processes to enable it to happen, and then provide appropriate oversight to ensure success.

2.  Select a suitable technology platform. You do not need, nor should you expect, a teaching platform to solve this problem.  Employees need a place to put their informal learning assets - which may include documents, slides, podcasts, videos, spreadsheets, and everything else.  Some companies use Microsoft Sharepoint, while other companies build these systems with inexpensive wiki and social networking software. Today, building these systems does not require heavy investment, but unfortunately most platform providers still do not have much to offer in this area.

3.  Create context, promote, market, and provide appropriate oversight to ensure success. This may be the most important step. The corporate training manager or trainer must become a champion.  They must go to the department managers in the organization, show them how to share information, and start promoting the use of peer-to-peer learning.  In addition to marketing and promoting, informal learning should be carried out with appropriate oversight and encouragement, rather than excessive control, to ensure see that it continues and is successful. 
Informal learning looks set to be a key trend in the training field in 2009. It appears to be a good training strategy in the context of the currently depressed economy, and its future development merits our continued attention!

Josh Bersin's Blog
http://joshbersin.com/2009/01/21/informal-learning-becomes-formal/