Social collaborative e-learning in higher education: Exploring the role of informal learning

Abstract

This position paper presents work in progress (within the first year) of the doctoral research into adoption of social collaborative e-learning in higher education. The research coins three concepts which intersect to form the fourth, social collaborative e-learning. These concepts are: informal learning, social networking and learning management. This paper explores the conceptual and theoretical role of informal learning practices in building social collaborative elearning environment. Specifically the paper will. 1. Explain the role of informal learning in formal educational setting. 2. Introduce informal learning strategies that can be adopted within formal educational programmes to scaffold e-learning. 3. Discuss the implications of involving educators and learners in informal interactions as a scaffold to formal education. The paper concentrates on how strategies can be used to promote social collaborative e-learning within a higher education context. The desk-based research method was used in this research leading to the development of a framework for informal learning proposed in this paper.