Adaptive Social Media Skills Trainer for Vocational Education and Training: Concept and Implementation of a Recommender System

The use of social media in the private and professional context is continuously increasing. Particularly in the private context most users are competent in dealing with these technologies. However, when it comes to apply social media in the professional context (e.g. communicating or searching for relevant information or integrating social media in classes or the preparation of homework), most users still show a lack of competencies. Thus, students and teachers would benefit from tailored access to online educational resources such as concepts, training materials, lesson plans, tools, etc. that support the professional use of social media. This paper presents the concept and the prototypical implementation of a recommender system for vocational education that fosters the development of each individual's social media skills. Hence, recommendations of social media contents are based on each individual's social media skill level and the current step in the teaching and learning process.