CONTEXTUAL PERSONALIZED LIST OF RECOMMENDED COURSES

1 . A computer implemented method comprising:

detecting an event indicating that a viewer represented by a viewer member profile in an on-line social network system is accessing a target section of an electronic presentation, the target section associated with a section set of skills, each skill from the section set of skills corresponds to an entry in a skills database maintained in the on-line social network system;

in response to the detecting, examining a skills section in the viewer member profile to determine a set of viewer skills, the skills section in the viewer member profile populated with one or more values corresponding to respective entries from the skills database;

using at least one processor, generating a personalized set of skills that includes those entries from the section set of skills that are omitted from the set of viewer skills;

interrogating an inverted index of skills using the personalized set of skills to generate a recommendation set of courses, an entry in the inverted index of skills comprising a skill identification with an associated course identification, the skill identification corresponding to an entry in the skills database, the recommendation set of courses comprising course identification represented by those entries from the inverted index of skills that include a skill from the personalized set of skills and at least one associated course identification; and

causing presentation, on a display device, of a reference to an electronic course corresponding to an item in the candidate set of courses.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:

selecting a candidate set of courses using the inverted index of skills, each item in the candidate set of courses associated with at least one skill from the personalized set of skills;

generating respective relevance values for items in the candidate set of courses based on respective importance scores assigned to those skills from the personalized set of skills that correspond to skills associated with respective course identifications from the candidate set of courses; and

selecting the recommendation set of courses from the candidate set of courses based on respective relevance values generated for items in the candidate set of courses.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the generating of a relevance value for an item from the candidate set of courses comprises using a course feature associated with the item and a probability value reflecting preference of the viewer with respect to the course feature.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the course feature represents video quality of a course represented by the item.

5 . The method of claim 3 , comprising utilizing historical data reflecting activity of the viewer with respect to the on-line social network system to generate the probability value.

6 . The method of claim 1 , comprising generating additional user interface, the additional user interface comprising an actionable control associated with the reference to the electronic course corresponding to the item in the candidate set of courses to activate a preview of the electronic course corresponding to the item.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of a relevance value for an item from the candidate set of courses comprises using a weight value indicating significance of a course referenced by the item for imparting a skill associated with the item, the weight value generated using feedback signals from connections of the viewer in the on-line social network system.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the target section is from a plurality of sections in the entire electronic presentation.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the target section of the electronic presentation corresponds to the entire electronic presentation.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic presentation is an electronic slide show.

11 . A computer-implemented system comprising:

an event detector, implemented using at least one processor, to detect an event indicating that a viewer represented by a viewer member profile in an on-line social network system is accessing a target section of an electronic presentation, the target section associated with a section set of skills, each skill from the section set of skills corresponds to an entry in a skills database maintained in the on-line social network system;

a set of viewer skills generator, implemented using at least one processor, to examine a skills section in the viewer member profile in response to the detecting and determine a set of viewer skills, the skills section in the viewer member profile populated with one or more values corresponding to respective entries from the skills database;

a personalized set of skills generator, implemented using at least one processor, to generate a personalized set of skills that includes those entries from the section set of skills that are omitted from the set of viewer skills;

a recommendation generator, implemented using at least one processor, to interrogate an inverted index of skills using the personalized set of skills and generate a recommendation set of courses, an entry in the inverted index of skills comprising a skill identification with an associated course identification, the skill identification corresponding to an entry in the skills database, the recommendation set of courses comprising course identification represented by those entries from the inverted index of skills that include a skill from the personalized set of skills and at least one associated course identification; and

a presentation generator, implemented using at least one processor, to cause presentation, on a display device a reference to an electronic course corresponding to an item in the recommendation set of courses.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the recommendation generator is to:

select a candidate set of courses using the inverted index of skills, each item in the candidate set of courses associated with at least one skill from the personalized set of skills;

generate respective relevance values for items in the candidate set of courses based on respective importance scores assigned to those skills from the personalized set of skills that correspond to skills associated with respective course identifications from the candidate set of courses; and

select the recommendation set of courses from the candidate set of courses based on respective relevance values generated for items in the candidate set of courses.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the recommendation generator uses a course feature associated with the item and a probability value reflecting preference of the viewer with respect to the course feature to generate a relevance value for an item from the candidate set of courses.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the course feature represents video quality of a course represented by the item.

15 . The system of claim 12 , comprising a viewer preferences detector, implemented using at least one processor, to utilize historical data reflecting activity of the viewer with respect to the on-line social network system to generate the probability value reflecting preference of the viewer with respect to the course feature, wherein the recommendation generator is to use the probability value in generating the respective relevance values for items in the candidate set of courses.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the presentation generator is to generate additional user interface, the additional user interface comprising an actionable control associated with the reference to the electronic course corresponding to the item in the candidate set of courses to activate a preview of the electronic course corresponding to the item.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the wherein the recommendation generator is to generate of a relevance value for an item from the candidate set of courses using a weight value indicating significance of a course referenced by the item for imparting a skill associated with the item, the weight value generated using feedback signals from connections of the viewer in the on-line social network system.

18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the target section is from a plurality of sections in the entire electronic presentation.

19 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the target section of the electronic presentation corresponds to the entire electronic presentation.

20 . A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data executable by a machine to cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

detecting an event indicating that a viewer represented by a viewer member profile in an on-line social network system is accessing a target section of an electronic presentation, the target section associated with a section set of skills, each skill from the section set of skills corresponds to an entry in a skills database maintained in the on-line social network system;

in response to the detecting, examining a skills section in the viewer member profile to determine a set of viewer skills, the skills section in the viewer member profile populated with one or more values corresponding to respective entries from the skills database;

generating a personalized set of skills that includes those entries from the section set of skills that are omitted from the set of viewer skills;

interrogating an inverted index of skills using the personalized set of skills to generate a recommendation set of courses, an entry in the inverted index of skills comprising a skill identification with an associated course identification, the skill identification corresponding to an entry in the skills database, the recommendation set of courses comprising course identification represented by those entries from the inverted index of skills that include a skill from the personalized set of skills and at least one associated course identification; and

causing presentation, on a display device, of a reference to an electronic course corresponding to an item in the candidate set of courses.