Managing
Breakout Rooms
How to create breakout rooms
Note: You can also pre-assign
participants to breakout rooms when you schedule the meeting instead of
managing them during the meeting.
1.
Start an instant or scheduled meeting.
2.
Click Breakout Rooms 
.
3.
Select the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you
would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
a.
Assign automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly
into each of the rooms.
i. Include co-host(s) to breakout rooms: Disabled by default, you
can include any co-host(s) in the automatic assignment of breakout rooms.
Note: This requires version 5.10.0 or higher. Hosts on a version
below 5.10.0 will have co-host(s) assigned automatically to breakout rooms.
b.
Assign manually: Choose which participants you would like in
each room.
c.
Let participants choose room: Participants can select and enter rooms on their own.
d.
Load pre-assigned rooms: Choose from pre-assignments or previously saved assignments.
4.
Click Create.
5.
Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically.
You can manage the rooms prior to starting them by following the instructions
below.
Options for breakout rooms
1.
After creating the breakout rooms, click Options (on Windows) or
the gear icon 
(on macOS) to view additional breakout rooms options.
2.
Check any options that you would like to use for your breakout
rooms.
a.
Allow participants to choose room: Participants can select and enter rooms on their own once rooms are launched.
b.
Allow participants to return to the main session at any time: If
this option is checked, the participants can move back to the main session from
their meeting controls. If this is disabled, they need to wait for the host or
co-host to end the breakout rooms.
c.
Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout
rooms: Checking this option will move all participants into the breakout rooms
automatically. If this option is unchecked, the participants will need to click
Join to be added to the breakout room.
d.
Auto close breakout rooms after () minutes: If this option is
checked, the breakout rooms will automatically end after the configured time.
i. Notify me when the time is up: If this option is checked, the
host and co-hosts will be notified when the breakout room time is up.
e.
Set Countdown timer: If this option is checked, the participants
will be given a countdown of how much time they have left before being returned
to the main room.
3.
Follow the steps below to assign participants to rooms or click
Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.
Assigning participants to
rooms
To assign participants to
your rooms, select Assign next to the room you wish to assign participants to
and select the participants you want to assign to that room. Repeat this for
each room.
Once a participant has been
assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in
place of the Assign button.
Preparing breakout rooms
After manually or
automatically assigning participants to rooms, you can rearrange the
participants. Participants who are not assigned to breakout sessions will
remain in the main meeting when the rooms are started. Hover over the
participant or room for these options:
·
Move to (participant): Select a room to move the participant to.
·
Exchange (participant): Select a participant in another room to
swap the selected participant with.
·
Delete Room: Delete the selected room.
·
Recreate:
o
Recreate all Rooms: Deletes existing breakout rooms and allows
the host/co-host to create new ones.
o
Recover to pre-assigned rooms: Recreate the breakout rooms with
the pre-assigned arrangement. This is only available if using the pre-assign breakout rooms feature.
·
Add a Room: Add another breakout room.
·
Open All Rooms: Start the rooms. All assigned participants will
be moved to their respective rooms after confirming the prompt to join the
breakout room. If allowing participants to choose their own room, they can open
the list of rooms and choose which to join. The host, or co-host that launched
the breakouts and the original host, will be left in the main meeting until
manually joining one of the rooms.
Managing breakout rooms in
progress
Once the breakout rooms
have been started, the assigned participants will be asked to join the Breakout
Session. The host, or co-host that launched the breakouts and the original
host, will stay in the main meeting until joining a room manually.
The Breakout
Rooms window will split into two tabs, one listing the open breakout rooms and
their participants and the other listing all total participants. If there are 7
or more participants, a search tool will appear. If an assigned participant has
not joined a breakout room yet, it will be noted by (not joined) next to their
name. Unassigned participants will be listed under the Unassigned category.
The following options can
shown in the breakout rooms window:
·
Rename: Rename the Breakout Room. Enter the new name of the room
and click Yes.
·
Join: Join the breakout room.
·
Leave: Leave the room and return to the main meeting (only shows
when in a breakout room).
·
Delete Room: Delete the already in-progress Breakout Room.
Note: The option to delete a breakout room is only available if
the breakout rooms have not been opened, or, if already opened, the room has no
participants currently in the room.
·
Broadcast Message to All: (Host and co-hosts) Enter your
message, and click Broadcast. The message will now appear for all participants
in breakout rooms.
Note: This must be enabled in your Breakout Room settings.
·
Add Room: Create an additional breakout room.
·
Close All Rooms: Stops all rooms after a 60 second countdown,
which is shown to the host, co-hosts, and participants, and returns all
participants back to the main meeting.
Note: Adjusting Breakout
Rooms while they are open must be enabled for your account by Zoom, enabled in
your Breakout
Room settings, and have all participants connected through version 5.9.3 or
higher.
Upon hover, each
participant will have the following options available:
·
Assign To: Only available for unassigned participants, allows
the host or co-host to assign the participant to a room.
·
Move To: Click to move a participant to another available
breakout room. All breakouts will be listed, each with their current number of
participants.
Saving current breakout room
assignments for future use
If you want to save these
assignments, either done automatically or manually, for use in a future meeting
in this series (must be a recurring
meeting). Up to 10 different saved assignments are supported for each
user.
1.
After breakout rooms have been assigned, but are not currently
open, click the 
button and then click Save Breakout Rooms.
2.
Provide a name for this set of assignments.
3.
Click Save.
Responding to requests for
help
Participants in breakout
rooms can request that the meeting host join their meeting by clicking Ask for
Help 
.
You will be prompted to
join the room where the request originated from. Click Join Breakout Room to
join the room.
Sharing your screen to all
breakout rooms
Once breakout rooms are
open, the host or co-host can share
their screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms.
This allows the presenter to share visual information to all breakout rooms at
once, guiding them on the next steps or tasks.
1.
Click Share Screen 
in the meeting controls.
2.
Enable the Share to breakout rooms option along the bottom of
the share window.
3.
Choose what you would like to share, including an entire screen,
a specific open program, or others.
4.
(Optional) Click the Share Sound option as well to include audio with the shared content.
Note: This requires version 5.10.0 or higher to share audio with
content to breakout rooms.
5.
Click Share.
The selected content will be shared to all breakout rooms. Any
active shares in any breakout rooms will be interrupted for the
host's/co-host's shared screen. Annotation or whiteboarding is saved before the
host's shared content is viewed.
You can also use the Video
option, found under Advanced sharing tab, to share
playback of a locally stored file, which will also share the audio. This also
requires version 5.10.0 or higher.
Viewing activity statuses of
participants in breakout rooms
Once breakout rooms are
open, hosts and co-hosts can view the level of activity in each breakout room
to get an idea of how active the participants are. In the Breakout Rooms panel,
you can view which participants are in each room, along with icons that designate
if their audio or video is on, if they're sharing their screen, and if they
have any active reactions or nonverbal feedback. This feature can be
particularly useful for instructors looking for student engagement in breakout
room sessions.
Notes:
·
This option must be enabled in the breakout room setting options.
·
Once enabled, participants are notified before they join the
breakout room that their activity status is shared with the host and co-hosts.
·
Hosts and participants must be on client version 5.10.3 or
higher for activity statuses to appear.