Zoom: Breakout Rooms

Overview

Zoom Breakout Rooms are small groups that may be started at any time during the meeting or online classroom.  Select this link to review additional information and a brief video tutorial on Breakout Rooms. We also offer some Best Practices for Breakout Rooms below. 

Information

The meeting leader (or host) may create and start Breakout Rooms at any time during the meeting. During the process of creating rooms, the host may choose how many rooms to create and how to distribute participants into rooms. Select the Breakout Rooms icon on the toolbar to begin (or select More, and then Breakout Rooms). Please keep the following tips in mind.

• Participants will not see the Breakout Room configuration process.
• Breakout Rooms can be renamed and recreated at any time.
• The leader may join any Breakout Room in progress.

Create Breakout Rooms

On the meeting toolbar, select Breakout Rooms. Next, Zoom will prompt the leader to choose how many rooms to create and how to distribute Participants to the rooms. Keep in mind that co-hosts and alternative hosts may not be included in the distribution however these two roles can join Breakout Rooms at any time.

After creating the rooms, be sure to select Open All Rooms (pictured below) to start the Breakout Room activity.

Manage Breakout Rooms 

The Breakout Room wizard offers hosts a number of options to assist with managing rooms. For example, hosts can rename rooms, delete, or add more rooms, and move participants to different rooms before opening the rooms. Zoom will display the number of rooms and which participants are in the rooms. Participants can be re-assigned to other rooms at this time, if desired.

In the example below, one student is in Room 1. The host has selected the Options to quickly review room management preferences, and can set a time for the rooms to close, or adjust other room rules. Once rooms have been opened, participants will see a prompt on their screens to join the room. The Breakout Rooms wizard will track which students have joined a Breakout Room and display this information for the host.

To end Breakout Rooms, the leader (or host) should select Close All Rooms. This icon will only appear once Breakout Rooms are actually in progress.

Communication Tools

In Breakout Rooms, participants will communicate with others in their group and may engage Audio, Video (webcam), and Chat tools. One group cannot reach out to another via Zoom. Participants can, however, ask for help from the instructor. During the rooms, there is an Ask for Help icon on the participant's toolbar. The leader will receive a message similar to the one pictured below. In this example a Student is requesting help in Room 1. 

Best Practices for Breakout Rooms

• Prepare participants and students for the Breakout Rooms. Share your expectations regarding any assignments or goals, and remind students how long the rooms will be in progress. Review this article on engaging Breakout Rooms successfully for more information.
• Keep in mind that not all participants will have the same connection speed or quality. From time to time, you may need to assign a participant to a room again if their connection is interrupted unexpectedly.
• Before opening Breakout Rooms, consider appointing or asking for a volunteer to serve as a group leader in order to help guide the group towards a goal while the rooms are in progress.
• Zoom Breakout Rooms will inherit the permissions of the main room. Be sure to allow access to the tools and features you want participants to engage during their rooms, before opening the rooms. For example, a good starting point is to allow participants to Share (share screen), use Audio and Video, and add text to the Chat.