Educator, researcher, and AI EdTech entrepreneur working at the intersection of technology and learning. Founder of multiple education ventures dedicated to transforming how people learn across the globe.
A career spanning education, research, and technology innovation
Dr Benson Soong is an education leader whose career spans three decades at the intersection of pedagogy, technology, and entrepreneurship. With a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge -- where his dissertation was nominated by the Faculty of Education for the BERA Doctoral Thesis Award for best PhD thesis in Education -- Benson brings rigorous academic thinking to practical educational challenges.
He is the founder of Advanced Pedagogy Pte Ltd, an education technology company headquartered in Singapore and advised by Cambridge don Prof. Neil Mercer. The company is best known for its award-winning mySecondTeacher platform, which provides interactive video-based content for Cambridge IGCSE and A Levels syllabuses and is franchised and licensed in countries including Nepal and Indonesia.
Benson is also the Managing Director of iAcademy, an educational social enterprise that brings affordable, internationally recognised tertiary education to developing nations. He previously served as Chief Academic Officer at Islington College (Nepal), Managing Director of Informatics Global Campus / PurpleTrain (the strategic eLearning business unit of SGX mainboard-listed Informatics Education Ltd), Head of Instructional Design for SGX mainboard-listed Singapore Computer Systems, and co-founded eLC PL, an eLearning firm serving the defence sector in Singapore.
His book Study Less, Learn More! was a bestseller in Singapore in 2006 and one of the most borrowed books in Singapore's public library system in 2008. Benson continues to write and publish in the areas of eLearning, knowledge management, and the science of learning.
A strong multidisciplinary foundation spanning education, computer science, and commerce
Education technology ventures and platforms built to transform learning
Education technology company headquartered in Singapore, founded by Dr Soong and advised by Cambridge don Prof. Neil Mercer. AP works to improve school-based education using the technologies of education, transforming traditional education landscapes and leading to improved learning outcomes. A statutory member of the Singapore Business Federation.
Multiple international award-winning educational platform offering interactive video-based content for Cambridge Primary and IGCSE syllabuses. Provides 24/7 online tutoring, learning diagnostic reports, and is franchised and licensed in countries including Nepal and Indonesia. Available on iOS and Android.
Educational social enterprise bringing affordable, internationally recognised tertiary education to developing nations. Works closely with local educational partners and internationally-recognised universities in a tripartite relationship to bring real and impactful educational change to communities.
AI-powered revision platform that delivers real exam-style questions with specially trained AI providing customised examiner-level feedback, answer keys, and marking schemes. Covers subjects including Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Economics for EdExcel IGCSE examinations.
An online personality assessment platform based on the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) framework. Provides accessible, scientifically-validated personality profiling tools for individuals, educators, and organisations seeking insights into personality traits and behavioural tendencies.
Indonesian education initiative under Advanced Pedagogy, featuring the AI Subject Assistant (AISA) -- a revolutionary tool empowering educators. Partnered with Acer Indonesia for the Acer Edu Tech 2025 event and piloted in schools across Indonesia, including partnerships with Intan Pariwara.
Dr Soong served as Executive Director and Chief Academic Officer of Islington College, one of Nepal's leading higher education institutions offering internationally recognised degrees. He led academic strategy, instructional design, and quality assurance across all programmes.
Appointed as Digital Pedagogy Advisor to Alston Education, a leading education content provider established in 2009 with deep understanding of the international textbook market. Dr Soong's role augments Alston's digital services and pedagogical strategy.
A YouTube video quiz annotator that lets teachers use AI to turn any YouTube video into an interactive learning experience. Quizzes are overlaid directly on the video itself, with multiple modes -- instant feedback, game mode with leaderboards (similar to Kahoot), or assessment mode where only the teacher sees scores. A product of Advanced Pedagogy.
An online learning platform supporting homeschooling families across Asia, offering curated resources for Cambridge International A-Level and IGCSE examinations. Features professionally curated notes, interactive video content, and self-study tools designed as an exam-oriented grade booster for independent learners.
An AI-enabled interactive whiteboard quiz game that transforms classroom learning into a fast-paced, multiplayer experience. Teachers use AI to generate quizzes in mere seconds, and these quizzes are instantly playable by 2–4 students on the classroom interactive flat panel (IFP) -- bringing cheer, laughter, and learning into classrooms.
A hobby project for anyone about to publish a video. Paste a link to an unlisted YouTube video, send the share link to friends, and they tap one of nine icons -- amused, moved, confused, unimpressed -- whenever they feel something while watching. The dashboard then shows the combined shape of everyone’s reactions: where people reacted, what they felt, and how much of the video they watched. Individual taps are never attributable to anyone, which is precisely why the unflattering ones get recorded at all.
A school-licensed digital library for Indonesian schools, produced jointly by Advanced Pedagogy and PT Intan Pariwara. Each school gets its own address and catalogue, with books borrowed and returned as they would be from a physical shelf. The distinctive part is the licence: a school pays for concurrent reading seats rather than one copy per student, so a returned book becomes available to the next reader straight away. It is built for Chromebooks and modest school connections.
Peer-reviewed articles, books and the doctoral thesis -- each with a citable reference
Articles, essays, and practical guides on education, publishing, and the science of learning
A practical framework for first-time academic authors: six elements that separate a textbook that merely gets published from one that actually teaches -- organised the way an architect organises a building, structure first, style second. Covers the fixed structure (curriculum, chapter blueprint, pedagogical style) and the changeable interior (layout, callouts, physical design).
Part 1 gave authors the blueprint. Part 2 shows where real authors -- and real publishers -- get the blueprint wrong, with documented cases from instructional design research, academic publishing guidelines, and curriculum theory. Each mistake is tied to a specific element and includes practical fixes.
A personal reflection on the thinking behind Kung Fu Quiz -- a YouTube video quiz annotator that lets teachers overlay interactive quizzes on any YouTube video. The post explains the platform's three modes (feedback, game, and assessment) and the motivation to unlock the educational value hidden inside YouTube's vast library of content.
A reflection on the GEIF Myanmar 2026 (theme: “AI-Enhanced Education: Teaching with Purpose and Ethics”). Covers why pedagogy must lead technology, the flipped classroom in practice via mySecondTeacher, and why schools remain essential in the AI era -- addressing the cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and conative domains that no chatbot can replace.
A three-phase system for validating demand, finding product-market fit, and converting that fit into repeatable revenue -- synthesized from Harvard Innovation Labs guidance and applied market research, with insights from Dr Benson Soong. Covers the Mom Test, contextual inquiry, the Sean Ellis 40% test, the Hook Model, and positioning before product.
YouTube is the richest library of educational video ever assembled and teachers assign it constantly. But without a way to verify that students actually engage, that trust quietly backfires. Drawing on independent research from Oxford Economics, the University of Trento, and Gallup, this article makes the case for putting the check for understanding directly on top of the video, and introduces KFQ (Kung Fu Quiz) as the accountability layer.
An executive lecture delivered at the Doctors’ Forum, organised by The Watch Family in Singapore. Opening with eleven scenarios at a party that define every marketing term from direct marketing to AI agent search, the lecture traces the path from the 4Ps to the Purple Cow, examines the Forbes traffic collapse as AI Overviews reshaped discovery, and runs a live search experiment. It closes with six principles for earning a place in an AI’s consideration set -- and one commitment: make a single verifiable fact easier to discover within thirty days.
Delivered as special guest speaker at the TISSL Annual International Conference for Heads of Schools -- “Managing Change in Schools” -- in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and published by Cambridge International. The talk separates the technologies in education (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, smart boards, eBooks, EdX) from the technologies of education (mastery learning, reciprocal teaching, peer instruction, prescriptive tutoring, the flipped classroom), and asks why the first group wins public attention while the second moves learning outcomes. Drawing on Cuban’s “oversold and underused” verdict and Russell’s “no significant difference” findings, it works through Eric Mazur’s Peer Instruction in detail -- and Mazur’s conclusion that “it is not the technology but the pedagogy that matters.”
Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge -- nominated by the Faculty of Education for the BERA Doctoral Thesis Award. A one-year intervention in a Singapore secondary school pairing computer-mediated collaborative problem-solving with teacher-led prescriptive tutoring. A pilot study with control and experimental groups was followed by a main study comparing actual GCE ‘O’ Level results against expected grades. The intervention improved both test scores and student interest in physics, and gave the teacher deeper insight into her students’ mental models.
Short thoughts that come to mind -- on learning, work, and life
We chase in the future what we once possessed in the past, recognising its worth only in the present.
Editorial, advisory, and board positions