she gathers as much information as she can about the disease from a number of sources, including the American Cancer Society, her local Reach for Recovery Program, the Internet, and an oncology nurse who is a friend of a friend. Moreover, she learns of a local support group for cancer patients and decides to join for both information and emotional solace, thereby choosing a nonformal learning opportunity as part of her own self-directed efforts. Her husband and best friend have joined her in her fight, and both are reaching out to a number of different sources for advice and counsel.
These scenarios, representing the independent pursuit of learning in natural settings, with or without the support of institutional resources, are very common in adult life. Yet even with the many verification studies that have been completed, self-directed learning in this form is not recognized by many adults, or even by some educators of adults, as “real learning.” There are a lot of Davids out there, learning all kinds of things on their own, from model railroading to making quilts and crafting clay pots. Some find friends or independent mentors to assist them in their learning, and some deliberately choose institutional resources that might be helpful to them as part of their self-directed activities. There are also numerous Trudys whose self-directed learning activities are responsive to an unanticipated problem or situation. These learners often combine resources in their natural environments with those supplied by institutions, from educational materials to people who can assist them with their learning. What becomes evident is that this type of informal learning does not necessarily mean learning alone, a major myth about self-directed learning. Rather, adults often engage with other people, and even groups, whether they are institutionally based or not, in their self-directed learning pursuits.
Schugurensky (2000) makes just this point in summarizing the three forms of informal learning—that is, informal learning can occur individually or in groups and “learners can use a variety of sources for their learning, including books, newspapers, TV, the Internet, museums, schools, universities, friends, relatives, their own experience, etc.” (para. 20). He also notes that informal learning can complement and reinforce or contradict learning acquired in formal and nonformal settings:
For instance, one can learn in school curriculum that the capitalist system is a great contribution to humanity, and learn through informal ways that such a system is detrimental to humanity. Likewise, one can be socialized by the surrounding community into a bigot, and learn virtues of tolerance in the public school. Moreover, one can go to a school and be aware that through the formal curriculum she or he is learning A (e.g. math), without being aware that through the hidden curriculum she or he is learning B (e.g. homophobia) (para. 23).
Schugurensky also notes that informal learning can be additive, in the sense of acquiring more knowledge or skills, and it can be transformative (see Chapter 7).
In summary, we have presented a framework that encompasses three types of settings or contexts in which learning in adulthood occurs. The first two settings, formal and nonformal, involve some form of organizational or community sponsorship. The third opportunity, informal learning, is more of a hybrid. Although the majority of learning opportunities in this last category are planned and initiated primarily by learners in natural settings (such as the home, on the job, or through recreational pursuits), the learning processes and methods used in self-directed and informal learning have been incorporated by some formal and nonformal settings in the way they carry through their instructional programs.
Online Learning/eLearning
As noted previously, online can be seen as a site of learning, one that intersects with formal, nonformal, and informal learning. We now see learners engaged in individual or group learning via the Internet and smartphones, participating in teleconferences, and interacting from their homes with fellow participants and instructors from around the world. And although most of the research and theorizing about online learning is occurring in the formal education sector, online learning is also going on in nonformal settings. Many businesses have their own communications platforms where employees have access to company policies, events, and activities as well as learning that can be shared through chat rooms and e-mail. Local communities often use the Internet to stimulate citizen participation, and nonformal educational institutions such as museums facilitate learning through online activities. After getting a traffic ticket, one can even take a traffic school course online, endorsed by traffic court, to avoid getting “points” on one's driving record!
There are also thousands of online communities that fall into the “nonformal” sites of learning. Those with an explicit learning agenda are known as communities of practice (CoP). CoP “refers to relatively tightly knit groups of professionals engaged in a common practice, who communicate, negotiate, and share their best practice with one another directly… CoPs may also be composed of hobbyists or interest groups” (Harasim, 2017, p. 158). These online communities “not only accumulate knowledge, they also contribute to advancing knowledge” (p. 158). As another example of nonformal online communities, Hollenbeck (2005) explored how three online communities organized and educated their members worldwide in the art of social protest. She studied anti-McDonald's, anti-Walmart, and anti-Starbucks communities, which she labeled antibrand communities. All three had formed for the purpose of educating others “by providing resources for getting involved and taking action” against capitalist corporate giants (p. 207). Similarly, Yazicioglu and Borak (2012) studied the rhetoric and activities of anti-Coke online communities.
Informal learning has also been affected by this technology. How many of us have been curious about something and done a Web search to learn more about it? Even older adults are accessing the Web for up-to-date information on many aspects of their lives—from travel, to the “best places to live,” to their health condition. Ross-Gordon et al. (2017) note that technology “reflects both a blurring of historic separations among formal, nonformal, and informal knowledge, as well as the diminishing of prior sharper distinctions among providers” (p. 295). They go on to point out that
this shaping of our world incorporates the medium of written language with visual and auditory options….Internet technology has become a main medium for day-to-day living, while educators continue to experiment with defining and shaping that technology for specific learning experiences (p. 295).
As we noted earlier, it is from the formal education sector that we have learned the most about online learning, also called eLearning. Online or eLearning is defined as learning that “is computer-mediated, or facilitated by the use of technology and the World Wide Web. eLearning may occur in a range of formats, for instance blended (a mixture of face-to-face and online instruction) or 100% online” (Bierema, 2014, p. 248). Online learning is a form of distance education, which has a long history of serving adults who otherwise would not have access to continuing and higher education. The defining characteristic of all forms and generations of distance education is the separation of student and teacher in time or space. What in the literature is often termed first-generation distance education consisted of print-based correspondence courses, a form still in existence. How many generations follow differs by author, but the simplest model has the second generation being broadcast and television technologies, followed by the third generation of information technologies of which web-based courses are a part (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). This third generation is distinguished by “an increased degree of learner control and flexibility, interactive communication and group-oriented processes” (Conrad, 2005, p. 445).
Formal education institutions are experimenting with eLearning using various platforms and technologies in an effort to draw learners. The use of social media, virtual reality, podcasting, and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are just some examples. In addition to various platforms, there is growing attention to designing course offerings in this mode (Bierema, 2014; Harasim, 2017; King, 2017) and to issues of support for instructors, students, and the technology itself (Gibson, 2017).
The phenomenal growth of online learning is reflected in some statistics
