Bangping Xiao is a passionate educator and an entrepreneur. He is a firm believer that edtech can revolutionize the education sector today. He is the CEO of Neoscholar Education, a provider of research-based, higher education programs. He speaks on array of topics. Excerpts from the interview:

Conception of Neoscholar Education

As an education innovator, Neoscholar Education focuses on introducing research-based learning experience to students by collaborating with world’s renowned academics and researchers.

“We believe that education in modern time should center on developing the ability to think critically and explore knowledge independently. Learning through doing research projects is an effective way to accomplish this,” notes Bangping Xiao.

With the mission in mind, Neoscholar Education was founded to provide an environment where the students accomplish their first-ever research in life.

As the world’s largest research-based learning provider, Neoscholar started from a 15-student classroom in 2012 to educating 8,000+ students from around the world in 2021, adds this entrepreneur.

Pandemic accelerates demand for edtech

Due to the recent pandemic, there was a surge in demand for creating innovative virtual-classroom systems. “We see an opportunity to develop an innovative virtual-classroom system that seamlessly connects in-classroom students with remote instructors while offering functions to meet higher education’s complex and interactive nature. The existing online conferencing solutions can hardly meet the requirements of modern higher education, in which experimentations and interactions are pivotal” says Bangping Xiao. He also adds that current conferencing solutions ignore an important education scenario where teachers teach remotely while students are together in classrooms.

Strategizing to deliver consistently

Neoscholar Education works with more than 500 university professors and lecturers from the top academic institutes to provide the world’s leading research-based learning programs and general education courses. “Our virtual-classroom system allows us to bring our world-class educational resources and research-based learning concepts to students of different , especially developing countries where economic growth often outpaces educational development.”

Creating student’s very first academic research journey

Neoscholar Education promotes early introduction of academic research and uses research projects as the key vehicle for character development. “We design research-based learning programs that aim to develop critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, and an innovative mindset. Unlike traditional MOOC courses, our virtual-classroom system allows students and professors to conduct virtual research discussions and project collaborations, just as they would in the same classroom.”

Challenges Galore

Neoscholar Education is devoted to tackling the problem of inequality of educational resources through technological innovation, and it firmly believes that its virtual-classroom system will be a leading solution for accessible modern education. “It has been 11 years since I started the company, and we have always been striving around this goal” adds Bangping Xiao.

Leadership traits

Having a long-term vision and willing to self-reflect and adapt are the biggest traits this entrepreneur touts. “I think that my biggest strength is continuous self-reflection and self-growth. Since I started Neoscholar Education at the age of 19, most of the challenges I have faced have been completely unforeseen. To solve these challenges, I need to reflect on the mistakes I have made and constantly adapt, change, and improve. Failure is the norm in fast-growing startup companies.”

Edtech – The road ahead

Bangping Xiao says that the pandemic partly drives the boom of the ed-tech industry, but companies should not take this growth for granted. “Getting caught up in short-term outbursts is not a wise thing to do. Ultimately, the products, content, and user recognitions determine the industry winners.”

The World Economic Forum released a report in 2020 that portrays modern education and calls it Education 4.0. Learning in Education 4.0 must be accessible, inclusive, problem-based, collaborative, and student-driven. “At Neoscholar Education, our unique research-based learning programs, along with our virtual-classroom learning system, have positioned us to become a leading driver of the new era of education.”