Back
As Singapore's population ages, more seniors and their caregivers will need care and support. But with manpower stretched, who will be there to reach and uplift those who are lonely, isolated or unable to leave their homes?
For more than a decade, social enterprise I’m Soul Inc, has used its proprietary, solutions as a social prescription to nourish mind, body, and soul. Their challenge is how to scale impact in this age of AI and technology, yet preserving human engagement at the heart of its work. The opportunity emerged in the form of an integrated hybrid learning technology.
Caption: Purposeful Facilitators Programme in session.
Through a partnership with education technology provider ClassIn, I’m Soul Inc’s journey to design a programme for its facilitators shows that the right technology and partner can make facilitator training more accessible, impactful, and sustainable. The collaboration recently earned both organisations the Gold Award for Community Outreach at the international eLearning Forum Asia (eLFA) Awards 2026.
Behind this achievement is an innovation journey supported by IAL. What began with an innovSpur-funded project to develop an integrated hybrid learning solution grew into a Sandbox collaboration that brought ClassIn's technology into a new community setting through I’m Soul Inc.
The journey illustrates how a promising innovation can develop beyond its original purpose and why funding is often only the beginning.
Making hybrid learning work better
For all its promise, hybrid learning has not always delivered an equally engaging experience to everyone.
"One of the key challenges we identified was that hybrid learning was often fragmented, both in the learner experience and in the technology supporting it," says Ms Phyllis Zhang, Vice President of ClassIn Global.
Online participants can remain passive or disconnected from classroom activities. Educators, meanwhile, may find themselves juggling multiple devices, software platforms, and learning resources. “Different parts of the learning journey were often supported by separate systems, creating additional complexity for both educators and learners,” she adds.
To address these gaps, ClassIn set out to develop a more integrated learning ecosystem. The company embarked on IAL's innovSpur initiative to develop and test its solution in real-world learning environments.
Through innovSpur, ClassIn could observe how educators and learners used the technology, identify challenges, and refine its approach. The experience yielded an important insight.
"One of the most important lessons was that the effectiveness of hybrid learning is not determined by the number of technological features available, but by how naturally those features support teaching, facilitation and participation," Ms Zhang explains.
ClassIn thus focused on simplifying workflows so that educators could move smoothly between presentations, discussions, and collaborative activities while engaging both onsite and remote learners.
“The process helped us move from an initial concept towards an approach that was grounded in real user needs,” Ms Zhang reflects.
Having established its strengths in online education for the K–12 sector, which covers primary and secondary education, ClassIn saw opportunities to apply its technology to adult education and training. While the two sectors have different learning needs and approaches, ClassIn's experience in developing digital learning solutions provided a foundation for exploring new applications. Its next opportunity, however, would take its technology beyond the conventional classroom.
When the right partners come together
For more than a decade, I’m Soul Inc has been using music and movement to address loneliness and social isolation, particularly among vulnerable and underserved communities.
“We believe medicine is not the only cure to improve health and well-being. Music and movement have long been recognised for their healing power and their ability to connect people across ages and abilities. Our programmes combine music, dance, playing instruments and improvisation enabled by technology with meaningful human engagement to support physical, mental, emotional and social well-being,” says Ms Michelle Lee, Founder and CEO of I’m Soul Inc.
The challenge was finding ways to extend their reach.
Delivering these programmes requires facilitators with more than musical or technical proficiency. They must understand how to engage people of different ages and abilities, build trust, and create meaningful human connections. They must also be able to share knowledge of how social determinants impact our brain health and quality of life.
It was a challenge that ClassIn's hybrid learning capabilities could potentially help address.
"What we saw was strong complementarity," says Dr Sim Soo Kheng, Director of IAL's Centre for Workplace and Learning Innovation. IAL thus brought the two organisations together through its Sandbox initiative.
"Through innovSpur, ClassIn had demonstrated credible technology capability and a genuine openness to experimentation within the Training and Adult Education ecosystem," Dr Sim says. “I’m Soul Inc brought contextual understanding of social learning and needs, translating technology into practical, testable use cases.”
Scaling learning without losing the human touch
The collaboration centred on I’m Soul Inc 's Purposeful Facilitators Programme (PFP), designed to prepare individuals to deliver its music and movement activities.
The PFP combines workshops, practical sessions with live audiences, coaching, reflection and feedback. Participants learn not only how to sing, move and use music-making technology, but also about brain science and how to engage people with different needs and abilities.
Equally important are less easily taught qualities such as empathy, compassion and a commitment to continuous learning.
Through the Sandbox, I’m Soul Inc worked with ClassIn to examine its pedagogy and develop a hybrid training model that still preserves the core human touch. ClassIn's integrated learning platform helps organise training materials and resources in one place, while its hybrid learning capabilities make training more accessible and potentially more affordable.
IAL also played an active role in the experimentation process.
“IAL worked closely with us to understand the specific needs and practical constraints of the programme, and to explore and test how the Classin ecosystem could be adapted to this use case,” shares Ms Zhang. For ClassIn, the partnership also demonstrated how its learning ecosystem could support participation and connection beyond conventional education and training.
Launched in July 2026, the PFP has begun touching lives and yielding encouraging feedback. Initial trainee reflections suggest that participants are gaining an appreciation of the deeper purpose of facilitation, beyond mastering individual skills.
“For example, one of our trainees reflected that the programme has shown how they could better connect with, support, and empower seniors,” shares Ms Lee.
While it is still early days, the collaboration illustrates how technology can help make training more scalable without losing sight of the human connections that give it purpose.
Beyond recognition, towards lasting impact
Caption: Ms Michelle Lee, Founder and CEO of I’m Soul Inc (left), with Lara Lai, Director of ClassIn Sync at the eLFA 2026 conference.
For ClassIn and I’m Soul Inc, the eLearning Forum Asia Gold Award represents an important milestone. But both organisations are looking beyond the recognition.
“Our next step is to extend this programme to reach out to those isolated at home and to their family caregivers who carry the burden of care, make it even more affordable and accessible, and train more facilitators at scale so that we can reach anyone, anywhere at any time, especially those underserved and isolated at home,” shares Ms Lee.
For Classin, the collaboration has revealed new possibilities. Ms Zhang adds, “The technology became an enabler of participation and connection, rather than the end in itself. It also showed that the same ecosystem could be applied beyond formal education and training to support different communities and use cases.”
The collaboration also offers a broader lesson about supporting learning innovation.
Promising ideas do not automatically translate into successful adoption. Innovators need opportunities to test assumptions, gather evidence, refine their solutions and find partners capable of putting them to meaningful use. Through initiatives such as innovSpur and the Sandbox, IAL seeks to provide these conditions.
As Dr Sim puts it, “We are not simply funding product development but creating conditions to learn whether an innovation truly works in context. Ultimately, success is not ‘did we build it?’ but ‘did we learn where it creates value, and how it can be adopted sustainably?”
For ClassIn and I’m Soul Inc, that journey is still unfolding. Their collaboration shows how innovation can take on new possibilities when technology, learning expertise and community needs come together.
Find out how IAL's innovation grant pathways can support your journey from idea to impact.