Tracking and Reacting to the Evolving Knowledge Needs of Lifelong Professional Learners

Our research is part of an ongoing project to provide tools to support the individual learning needs of lifelong professional learners. In the advanced learning technology research community there is an increasing interest in personalizing learning technology according to the evolving knowledge needs of the learner and the changing knowledge within their profession. In this paper we propose an approach to supporting the lifelong professional learner that adapts as the learner and the knowledge base itself change. The novelty of our approach is threefold. First, we use data from social media to gain insight about a professional learner’s knowledge, in particular to diagnose the gaps in their knowledge. Second, we don’t just diagnose what learners know and don't know, but we also try to determine what they know about what they know and don’t know. Third, we track how the domain of expertise is itself changing. Ultimately our goal is to build an open learner modeling system wherein the gaps in the knowledge of professionals can be indicated to them at any point in time while providing personalized help also. In this paper we describe the architectural design of this system.