How HHL Leipzig uses Wooclap to engage international students

Imagine arriving in a new country, about to begin your MBA,but not yet knowing a single classmate. At HHL Leipzig School of Management, this was a familiar challenge: How can international students feel part of the community before they even set foot on campus?

For Anne-Marie Bergmann, Manager of Student Affairs for the Full-time MBA, the answer came in the form of Wooclap.

What began as an experiment in digital icebreaking quickly evolved into a signature HHL experience. One that not only builds engagement but also reduces pre-arrival anxiety and fosters inclusion in a multicultural student cohort.

From onboarding challenge to opportunity

Each year, HHL welcomes MBA candidates from around the world. Professionals from over 20 nationalities, spanning multiple time zones and cultural backgrounds. The first hurdle? Building relationships and trust before classes begin.

Traditional onboarding emails and video calls weren’t enough. As Anne-Marie explains, “Most of our students have never met in person before. We wanted them to bond and interact, not just receive information."

That’s when she and her colleague turned to Wooclap, initially designed for interactive teaching. But could it also work as a community-building tool?

The answer was a resounding yes. By transforming online “pre-class meetings” into interactive sessions full of polls, word clouds, and live GIF reactions, HHL turned onboarding into something fun, social, and memorable.

Designing connection through interactivity

Anne-Marie’s “Pre-Class Meetings” last just one hour, yet every minute is designed to spark engagement. Participants join a live Wooclap event via QR code, where questions, images, and GIFs replace traditional introductions. Instead of a static video call, the screen comes alive with student voices and responses, all visible in real time.

The event starts with light questions to “set the mood”:

• How do you feel today? (students answer via GIFs)
• Where are you right now? (answers range from “my couch” to “a café in São Paulo”)
• What’s your favorite food? (a word cloud of sushi, pizza, and curry quickly emerges)

It’s a playful format that immediately dissolves the stiffness of a first online meeting. The visual feedback, seeing everyone’s answers appear at once, creates a sense of shared presence that a simple Zoom call could never replicate.

“It’s totally anonymous, unless you choose to put your name. That helps people open up.".

The result? An icebreaker that truly breaks ice, even across borders!

Engagement, inclusion, and belonging before day one

The brilliance of HHL’s approach lies in its pedagogical twist: using Wooclap’s features not just for teaching, but for social learning.

Anne-Marie explains that most MBA participants are mid-career professionals — often returning to study after several years in the workforce. By combining professional and personal questions (e.g. “How many years of work experience do you have?” followed by “What’s one thing you love to do outside of work?”), she creates space for genuine human connection.

This method builds three key dimensions of engagement:

1. Emotional engagement – Students share laughter, GIFs, and humor before they even meet.
2. Cognitive engagement – They get familiar with using digital learning tools like Wooclap early on.
3. Social engagement – Participants recognize shared experiences and form informal networks before classes start.

It’s no surprise that many participants continue those conversations on WhatsApp or LinkedIn later. Proof that digital tools can indeed nurture authentic human connection.

A simple setup with powerful impact

One of the most striking parts of Anne-Marie’s demo is just how easy it all is.

After uploading her PowerPoint slides directly into Wooclap, she simply inserts interactive questions between them, using the platform’s template gallery to pick from a range of activities:

• Multiple choice
• Word clouds
• Open questions
• Picture polls
• Mood boards

With real-time integration and no technical setup needed, Anne-Marie can focus on facilitating conversation rather than troubleshooting tech. Even better: Wooclap’s anonymity feature lowers barriers for shy or hesitant participants, creating an inclusive environment from the very first interaction.

Lara McEvoy, Wooclap’s Customer Success Manager who co-hosted the session, summed it up neatly: "It’s nice to be able to enable likes or reactions, because it starts a conversation between participants, especially when they see they share the same opinion.".

What might look like a small design detail, a heart, a GIF, a poll is, in reality, the spark that gets a global classroom talking.

Lessons for higher education: interactivity beyond the lecture hall

What makes the HHL use case so inspiring is its transferability. The same principles apply to any institution or educator seeking to build online engagement — whether in a business school, a university department, or a corporate training program.

Here are three takeaways from Anne-Marie’s experience:

1. Engagement starts before learning. Don’t wait for day one — use tools like Wooclap to create early emotional connections.
2. Mix structure with spontaneity.Combining planned questions with open formats (like word clouds or “things in common”) invites authenticity.
3. Keep it light, keep it human. Humor, GIFs, and food-related questions aren’t trivial — they’re cultural bridges that make people comfortable enough to share.

As Anne-Marie says, “Not every question works with every crowd. You have to think about your goal, whether you want reflection, laughter, or connection.”

From digital interaction to real-world community

By the time HHL’s new MBA students arrive in Leipzig, they’re no longer strangers. They’ve already exchanged jokes, discovered shared tastes, and recognized faces from the pre-class session.

In other words, they’ve already begun learning together.

And that’s precisely the magic of Wooclap, not just a platform for quizzes or polls, but a bridge between people.Whether you’re onboarding international students or welcoming new employees, the lesson is universal: Interactivity isn’t just about engagement during class, it’s about belonging before class even begins.