Informal Learning in a Remote Working Environment

The information-gathering function of our brain, which is activated from the moment we are born, continues throughout life when all conditions are normal. However, not all of this information remains in the status of “used” information. Many find a place in the depths of the unconscious space and we are unaware of their existence unless we pick them up. Informal, in other words, informal learning is actually a form of learning that starts organically in the very early stages of our lives and continues. Informal learning by definition; refers to learning that takes place away from a structured, formal classroom setting. Informal learning comes in many forms, including watching videos, self-study, reading articles, participating in forums and chat rooms, performance support, coaching sessions and games. Also, informal learning is used in a remote working environment.

Informal learning is mostly fed by the experiences of the person in daily life and is an important part of employee development. In fact, in a 2016 Brandon Hall Group survey, 50 percent of respondents said on-the-job training, learning by doing, and learning by observation are critical to the job. Informal, ad hoc learning, typically through peer-to-peer collaboration and social networking, was considered as important as traditional instructor-led development. Nevertheless, the pandemic conditions brought about by the Covid-19 virus, which started to affect the whole world in 2019, have limited the informal learning area of individuals. New normals such as remote working and education that came with the pandemic have caused you to include a number of new activities in your business processes in order to continue the informal learning processes of your employees in your organization.

Encourage Informal Learning in Distance Working

Let’s talk about how you can create informal learning environments in a distance working environment.

1. Create a Learning Culture
2. Enable Social Learning: Create a digital social learning space where employees can ask questions, provide feedback, and organize content and ideas.
3. Create Forums: Collaborate with your colleagues virtually. Provide semi-structured forums where they can mingle.

4. Create environments where they can share their interests.
5. Offer Pre-Training Content: Create pre-course preparation materials, such as interactive PDFs that summarize the essential information needed for formal courses.
6. Use Microlearning: Break content into small chunks (also known as microlearning).
7. Resource Digital Learning: Identify digital learning solutions and facilitate access to tools such as online learning libraries and industry journals.
8. Facilitate Virtual Book Clubs: Encourage reading by facilitating the creation of virtual book clubs.
9. Create Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities: Coaching and mentoring are great ways to increase formal education. Support short-term coaching relationships for training participants and identify high-potential employees and match them with mentors to help them prepare for their future roles.
10. Facilitate Interaction: Finally, facilitate small groups and one-on-one virtual interactions. Encourage employees to use live video calls and remind students that in a remote work environment, it’s important to forgive dogs in the background and perfectly shed hair.

In summary, there are many different activities in which we can continue the informal learning style, which covers the vast majority of learning, in remote working conditions. For example, offering a mobile learning application for your employees is a good informal learning alternative.

References http://yusufatalan.com/informal-ogrenme/ http://yusufatalan.com/informal-ogrenme/

That is all for now, hope you enjoyed this blog! Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below! Also, if you are looking for more resources on informal and personalized mobile learning and content curation, don’t forget to check out our other blogs! Here is one you might enjoy: Top Platforms That Can Help You With Content Curation

On a final note, if you are looking to get into content curation for learning as an organization, you might be interested in checking out Further and requesting a free demo. See you!