Informal learning needs a greater slice of training budgets, according to the president of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) in the UK.

Lasher of Trainer1 and developer of the 'Five 'A's of learning' instructional design said that too often the potential of e-learning was “misunderstood”, with designers relying on classroom-based instructional design technques.

Instead Lasher says e-learning has great potential for informal learning.

“At present, informal learning represents 80% of what we learn but only 2% of our training budgets,” he said.

“Applying instructional design techniques to e-learning materials designed specifically for informal learning should not only improve the effectiveness of these learning materials but also make a greater contribution to an organisation's efficiency and effectiveness than would be the case if training budgets were only allocated to address formal learning needs."

Lasher is to speak on “informal and workflow e-learning design” at both the Learning Technologies conference, in Olympia, London, on 31 January – 1 February and at the ASTD 2007 International Conference & Exposition, in Atlanta, USA next June.