As a Zoom host you can split your meeting into groups or “breakout rooms.” The host can assign multiple different rooms, (up to 50) and name them whatever they want. They can assign their students or participants into the groups/rooms as they see fit, or have Zoom automatically assign the participants into groups/rooms at an even division.
The Meeting Host can broadcast chat messages to all rooms, change some settings and end the breakouts whenever they want or at a specific time.
This tutorial will show how to do this.
**Note** If you are going to have repeated sessions with the same participants in the same groups, you might want to pre-assign the breakout rooms before your class/meeting, as then Zoom will automatically put participants into their appropriate, pre assigned groups and rooms. To see how to do this, see the tutorial "Pre-Assigning Breakout Rooms".
During the meeting, if the host hovers the mouse over their screen, they will see options show up on the bottom of Zoom Client. One of these is the “Breakout Rooms” tool.
Initially after clicking, a pop-up screen as shown below will come up that asks you
a) how many groups or “rooms” you want to start,
b) if you want Zoom to distribute the participants automatically. If they choose to do this manually, the host can assign each participant individually to a room, and move them around to other rooms in the next pop-up window.
c) if you want to let the participants choose their own rooms. Given this option the participants will see a list of the different rooms once the host "opens all rooms." And the participants can enter whichever one they want.
These settings can always be changed later. After you make your selection the breakout room pop-up window changes into this.
Here the meeting host can "Rename" and "Delete" rooms by clicking the respective buttons next to the Room Names, or
"Add More Rooms," and "Open and Close All Rooms" at the bottom of the pop-up window..
The "Recreate" Button brings you back to the previous pop-up window.
By hitting “Assign” next to the group/room names, you as the host can assign each participant to the breakout room that you want the participants to go into.
The host can click the bottom left blue "Options" button and it will bring them to some additional settings as shown below.
“Allow participants to choose room” – This will give students/participants the option to join whichever breakout room they want once the host opens the breakout rooms.
“Allow participants to return to the main session whenever they want” - This allows a participant in a breakout room to hit “leave room” on the bottom right of their screen. This will bring them back into the main session. For example, if you are a teacher and stay in the main session, your students can leave their breakout room to ask you questions and then return back to their breakout room.
“Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms” - If this setting is enabled then whenever the host clicks “Open All Rooms” at the bottom right of the window, everyone you or zoom has assigned to the rooms will automatically go into the rooms. If this is not checked, the participant will receive a large button in the middle of his or her screen asking them if they would like to join the breakout room.
"Breakout rooms close automatically after (x) minutes" - The host can have the breakout rooms automatically close after a set amount of time if they wish, automatically closing all rooms and bringing everyone back to the main session at the end of the timer.
"Countdown after closing breakout room" -You as the host can change the countdown timer that gives a buffer between when you click the "close all meetings" button and the time until it kicks everyone out of the rooms back into your main session.
Broadcasting Messages to Participants in Breakout Rooms:
Once the host has assigned the participants to the rooms, and clicked the "Open all Rooms" button on the bottom right of the pop-up window the host will see a new option to "Broadcast Messages to All Rooms" as shown below. This allows the host to send a message to all participants in all rooms.
Type whatever you message you want in the text box and then below it click the "Broadcast" button and all participants will see the message pop up in their Zoom window.
