Comparing Formal, Non-formal, and Informal Online Learning Environments

Everything our research team learned about virtual learning communities (VLCs) from formal learning environments was called into question when we recently shifted our attention to non-formal and informal learning environments. In almost all of the literature we reviewed, what we understood about online learning communities and how they develop, grow, and die away was based on examinations of formal online learning environments—primarily on postsecondary courses managed by institutions of higher learning. Formal environments typically require learners to engage each other online in prescribed, externally defined ways. As effective as formal environments may be, paying exclusive attention to them limits our understanding of the nature of learning in online settings. Non-formal and informal learning environments, by contrast, impose fewer controls on learner activities, and collaboration among participants is not required. This chapter considers what we are beginning to learn about learning communities in formal, non-formal, and informal online environments and speculates about how learners make use of social interaction to enhance learning. We wonder out loud whether “community” is an overused, tired metaphor for understanding dynamic learning phenomena and social interaction evident in non-formal and informal learning environments.