I’m not part of the course you are involved in, but I am interested in this split that happens between informal and formal learning, and it is something which I would challenge as it too often privileges accredited learning over other forms of learning that may be equally valuable, in similar or different ways. Although my research has moved away from a learning focus, a couple of years ago, I was very much mulling over these issues and you may find a blog post from then interesting http://lizit.me.uk/2009/11/19/self-directed-learning-or/ as it reflects my tussling with some of these issues (in fact looking back, I seem to have blogged quite a lot about informal learning at that time.

I’ll be interested to hear what conclusions you come to.