Content and curriculum lie at the heart of every educational system, learning environment, and learning technology. Yet the infrastructure to support this main pillar is severely lacking, and largely consists of a scattered set of elements: research on learning constructs, various curricula and syllabi, loosely tied together by jurisdiction-based standards documents (i.e. the Common Core State Standards, Finland’s education standards, etc.). These elements evolved before the digital era, based on different constituent's needs. However, the disjointedness of these structures leave the management of knowledge on learning constructs—and the design/access of learning tools and technologies for these learning constructs—in a messy, challenging state, unable to successfully carry us into the 21st century and the future of learning technologies and educational systems.
The LearningGraph is a research initiative that uses systems engineering practices to reengineer this infrastructure, using learning sciences frameworks and modern data modeling and ontological design. The goal of the project is to create a unified data model that supports the multiple stakeholders who work with learning constructs (teachers, learners, learning and assessment designers, learning scientists, educational technologist, informal learning facilitators, etc.), and provide an ongoing "living sandbox" where this knowledge is modeled and used to support teaching and learning across learning environments, technologies, and experiences.