Zoom: Breakout Rooms
Breakout Rooms in Zoom
Breakout rooms are sessions that are split off from the main Zoom meeting. They allow the participants to meet in smaller groups, and are completely isolated in terms of audio and video from the main session. Breakout rooms can be used for collaboration and discussion of the meeting. Interactions within breakout rooms are not automatically recorded if you are recording your session.
- Automatically Assign Breakout Rooms
- Manually Assign Breakout Rooms
- Creating Self-Select Breakout Rooms
- Pre-Create Breakout Rooms
- Additional Breakout Room Options
Automatically Assign Breakout Rooms
When automatically assigning breakout rooms, Zoom will split up participants evenly into each of the rooms depending on the number of rooms created.- Once the Zoom session has started, select Breakout rooms in the black Zoom panel at the bottom of the page. A pop-up window will appear.
- To set the number of breakout rooms, use the up and down arrows or manually type in the number of breakout rooms required. *As you increase the number of rooms the number of participants per room will decrease.
- Select the circle next to Assign Automatically.
- Select the Create button.
You will now have the option to either: - Select Recreate to be able to modify the number of breakout rooms and participant assignment.
- Select Add a Room to add an additional breakout room.
- When satisfied with the breakout rooms, select Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.
Manually Assign Breakout Rooms
Manual Breakout room assignment allows the host to assign participants to specific rooms.- Once the Zoom session has started, select Breakout rooms in the black Zoom panel at the bottom of the page. A pop-up window will appear.
- To set the number of breakout rooms, use the up and down arrows or manually type in the number of breakout rooms required. *As you increase the number of rooms the number of participants per room will decrease.
- Select the circle next to Assign Manually.
- Select the Create button.
- Select Assign next to the room you would like to assign participants to.
- Select the checkbox next to the participants name to assign them to that room.
- Once a participant is assigned to a room, the number of participants in the room will show in place of the Assign button and the participant's name will be listed under the breakout room.
- Once you are satisfied with the breakout room assignments, select Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.
Creating Self-Select Breakout Rooms
When the self-select breakout room option is enabled, participants can self-select which breakout room they'd like to join. When enabled, participants will be able to move freely between breakout rooms without the host's help. The self-select breakout rooms feature requires that both the host and participants have the Zoom Client 5.3.0 or later.
- Once the Zoom session has started, select Breakout rooms in the black Zoom panel at the bottom of the page. A pop-up window will appear.
- To set the number of breakout rooms, use the up and down arrows or manually type in the number of breakout rooms required.
- Select the circle next to Let participants choose room.
- Select the Create button. The pop up window will now display a list of the breakout rooms created.
- Select the Open All Rooms button to start the breakout rooms.
- Once the breakout rooms are open, the breakout rooms pop-up window will display the locations of each participant in real time as depicted below.
Pre-Create Breakout Rooms
Due to privacy and confidentiality, instructors cannot pre-assign students to specific breakout rooms because pre-assignment requires student email addresses. However, instructors can make breakout rooms prior to the zoom meeting and either manually or automatically assign students to the pre-created breakout rooms once the zoom session has started.
- Log into zoom.us Links to an external site. (you can sign in at https://zoom.us/signin Links to an external site.).
- On the left side of the page that opens, select Meetings.
- Select the name of your scheduled meeting.
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On the meeting management page, scroll down and select Edit this meeting.
- Scroll down to Meeting Options and select the checkbox next to Breakout Room pre-assign. You will now see the option to + Create Rooms or Import from CSV.
- Select + Create Rooms.
- Select the plus sign next to rooms.
- Provide a name for the break out room.
- Repeat steps 7-8 to add more rooms. Select Save when you are done and the window will close.
- Your pre-created breakout rooms are now available for use once your Zoom meeting has started and you have selected Breakout Rooms in the black Zoom panel at the bottom of the page.
Additional Breakout Room Options
After a breakout room has been created there are additional features that can be enabled.
- Allow participants to choose room.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time.
- Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms.
- Auto close breakout rooms after () mins.
- Set countdown timer.
- Once the Zoom session has started and breakout rooms have been created but not opened, select Options in the bottom left corner of the Breakout Rooms pop-up window to access the additional breakout room options.
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- Allow participants to choose room - Participants can select and enter rooms on their own once the rooms are open.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time - Participants can move back to the main session from their meeting controls. If this is disabled, they need to wait for the host to end the breakout rooms.
- Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms - Automatically moves all participants into the breakout rooms . If this option is unchecked, participants will need to click Join to be added to the breakout room.
- Breakout rooms close automatically after () mins - Automatically ends breakout rooms after the configured time. As part of this option, the host can check Notify me when time is up to be notified when the breakout room time is up.
- Countdown after closing breakout rooms - Gives participants a countdown of how much time they have left before being returned to the main room.
To learn more about Zoom, contact ctl.helpdesk@ubc.ca.
Updated September 2020