Céline Marsy 26 Aug 2021

EDHEC Business School engages, connects and onboards international students with Kahoot!

EDHEC is expecting around 400 new international students to start studies at their campus in Lille and Nice, France. Read how their international student offices are planning to integrate Kahoot! to welcome students both in-person and virtually and provide them with all the info they need for a smooth start.

Operating from campuses in Lille, Nice, Paris, London and Singapore, EDHEC is one of the top 15 European business schools. The international student offices (ISO) teams on both campuses have prepared a new onboarding program for international students arriving in August 2021.

Every year, we have hundreds of international students start their business studies at our campuses. We are constantly looking for new ways to engage students more dynamically, ease their transition to this new environment and collect feedback.

Earlier this year, we participated in a live Kahoot organized by Ketch’up, our student union created last semester to help students connect and socialize with each other. The enthusiasm and engagement was impressive, and we thought it would be a great addition to the activities we’re planning with my colleagues at the students offices. We got started with a Kahoot! EDU subscription, and here’s what we’ve planned for this year’s onboarding.

Make students feel welcome before they arrive

Moving to a new country is challenging. At the International Students Offices, our top priority is to make students feel confident and comfortable when they arrive. To provide them with the essential info they need and make their first weeks as stress-free as possible, we start our virtual onboarding activities several weeks before they actually come to Lille or Nice. To answer any practical questions students may have, we’ve implemented a new student experience website.

Less stress, more fun in student onboarding

We are excited to use Kahoot! for interactive presentations that are included in the onboarding. We already have a PowerPoint presentation sharing lots of practical information on different topics such as housing, health insurance, opening a bank account, and more. Using kahoot questions will provide a more dynamic way to engage students with this content.

Two-way interaction and conversation starter

We want students to know we’re always here to assist them and create a friendly social environment. So, after any onboarding activity, it’s important to us to hear back from the students – did they get answers to their questions? How could we improve our services? Are they happy with their accommodation? We are exploring different question types to collect student feedback through our kahoots. Both polls and open-ended questions seem like a great way to facilitate that!

Not everyone is comfortable with speaking in front of a big group, so sharing their opinions through Kahoot! should lower the threshold.

Additionally, based on our observations in the Kahoot! session we previously participated in, we expect our games to help break the ice and get students interacting with each other.

Ready for uncertainty

At this point we are supposed to run most of our onboarding activities face to face. If we’re allowed to host our integration day in person, we’ll definitely try playing in team mode!

But one of the things we value the most about Kahoot! is that it works great in both formats – virtually and on campus. Therefore, we feel prepared for uncertainty.

We are looking forward to engaging our students through Kahoot! EDU.

Looking for new ways to engage and onboard your students? Read more about Kahoot! EDU, our campus edition.

Here a few bonus tips to engage your students and make their first weeks at your university awesome:

Create kahoots covering practical info that is essential when moving to a new country: for example, how to book accommodation, where to find a doctor, what cultural activities are available, etc.
Use Kahoot! to introduce staff so it’s easier for students to get to know their college – they can replay these kahoots later!
Even before students arrive, you can assign kahoots as student-paced challenges that they complete in their own time and can replay as many times as they’d like.