Using Breakout Rooms in Zoom Meetings

Enable Rooms for Your Account

Create Pre-Assigned Rooms Before Your Zoom Meeting

Create Pre-Assigned Rooms Using a CSV File

Edit Assigned Breakout Rooms

Start a Meeting With Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

Revert to Pre-Assigned Meeting Rooms

Create Breakout Rooms During Your Zoom Meeting

Shared Documents Options (Participants)

Entering/Moderating Breakout Rooms (Host)

Move Participants Between Breakout Rooms

 

 

HOW TO ENABLE BREAKOUT ROOMS IN ZOOM ACCOUNT

Setting up breakout rooms in your Zoom account settings

  1.  Log into https://davidson.zoom.us/.
  2. Click "Settings" heading in the left sidebar.breakout2.png
  3. Under the “Meetings” tab (which is selected by default), scroll down to the "In Meeting (Advanced)" category.breakout3.png
  4. Toggle the button to enable breakout rooms. You can also pre-schedule breakout rooms by selecting the checkbox below the toggle. This will let you manually assign who should go to what breakout room before the meeting starts.

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HOW TO CREATE PRE-ASSIGNED BREAKOUT ROOMS (BEFORE YOUR ZOOM MEETING)

As a meeting host, you can split your meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting or when using a personal Zoom link. This can be useful if you already know how you want to split up your participants.

    1. Open up the Zoom application on your Mac or PC and log in. 
    2. Click “Meetings” and “Schedule a Meeting”.
    3. In the “Meeting Options” section, select Breakout Room pre-assign.
    4. Click “Create Rooms”.
    5. Click the “Plus” icon beside Rooms to add Breakout Rooms.
    6. Hover over the default breakout room name and click the pencil icon to rename it.
    7. In the Add participants text box, search for participants' name or email address to add them to the breakout room.
      Note: You can add internal Zoom users that are in the same account. To pre-assign participants that are external Zoom users, import a CSV file.
    8. (Optional) Use these options to edit your breakout rooms and participants:
    • Click and drag a participant's email address to change the order.
    • Hover over a participant's name to see options to move them to another room or remove them from the current room.
    • To delete a breakout room, hover the room name in the left panel and click the trash bin icon. 

9. Click “Save”.

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PRE-ASSIGNING PARTICIPANTS TO BREAKOUTS ROOMS USING A CSV FILE

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Meetings and “Schedule a Meeting”.
  3. In the Meeting Options section, select Breakout Room pre-assign and click Import from CSV.
  4. Click download to download a sample CSV file you can fill out.breakout7.png
  5. Open the CSV file with spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel.
    Note: You can specify internal or external Zoom users.
  6. Fill in the Pre-assign Room Name column with the breakout room name, and the Email Address column with the assigned participant's email address. 
  7. Save the file.
  8. Drag and drop the file in the web portal.
    Zoom will verify that the email address has a Zoom account.

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EDITING BREAKOUT ROOMS ASSIGNMENT

If you have already pre-assigned participants to breakouts rooms, you can edit the assignments before you start the meeting. 

Note: You can also manage breakout rooms during the meeting.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Meetings and click the meeting you want to edit.
  3. In the Breakout Room section, click View detail.
  4. Edit the breakout rooms as needed. See the previous section for more details.
  5. Click Save.

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STARTING A MEETING WITH PRE-ASSIGNED BREAKOUT ROOMS

  1. Start the meeting with participants pre-assigned to breakout rooms. 
  2. Click Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls to access the breakout rooms you created.

    breakout8.png
    • If a participant joins before you (the host), they will be automatically assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting. 
    • If a participant joins after you (the host), they will not be automatically assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting. Revert to pre-assigned breakout rooms to assign participants to their pre-assigned breakout rooms.
  3. Click Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.
    Note:
    • If a participant joins after you started the breakout rooms, they won't be pre-assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting.
    • If a participant is in their pre-assigned breakout room and they leave the meeting and rejoin, they won't rejoin their pre-assigned breakout room.
    • You can manually assign participants using the in-meeting breakout room controls, or revert to pre-assigned breakout rooms.

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REVERTING TO PRE-ASSIGNED BREAKOUT ROOMS

After starting the breakout rooms, you can revert to the breakout rooms assignment you previously specified. This can be useful if you changed your breakout rooms during the meeting, or pre-assigned participants have joined the meeting after you joined the meeting or started breakout rooms. 

  1. Click Close All Rooms to end all breakout rooms.
  2. Click Recreate > Recover to pre-assigned rooms.
    breakout9.png
  3. Participants will be re-organized into the breakout rooms you specified when scheduling the meeting.

Note: When joining a meeting with pre-assignments, participants need to be signed in to their Zoom account for pre-assignments to be applied.

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HOW TO CREATE BREAKOUT ROOMS (DURING YOUR ZOOM MEETING)

  1.  Open up the Zoom application on your Mac or PC and log in. 
  2. Start a meeting option that is most appropriate for your meeting- “Schedule a New Meeting/ Recurring Meeting” or “Host a Meeting” or “Personal Meeting Room”.
  3. When the meeting begins, in the bottom toolbar will be a "Breakout Rooms" icon. Click it.
  4. From here, you can either allow Zoom to automatically sort your participants into the number of rooms you select, or you as the host can assign each room manually
  5. Once you've decided on your setting, click the "Create Breakout Rooms" button.
  6. A dialogue box will show the rooms you've created.breakout12.png
  7. Click a room to see to assign participants and to see who is in the room. Hover over the breakout room to move, rename, delete, or reassign people from various rooms.
  8. In the lower left hand corner, select the "Options" button to enable your various breakout room settings. breakout14.png
  9.  Under the “Options” button  you can set breakout rooms to:
    1. Close the rooms after a set amount of time
    2. Allow participants to return to the main session at any time
    3. Set a countdown timer to let participants know how long they have left in a particular breakout session once time expires or the host decides to close it. 
  10. Select recreate rooms to...
  11. In the lower right hand corner, select "Open All Rooms" to officially start your breakout sessions. 

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SHARED DOCUMENTS OPTIONS (PARTICIPANTS)

Participants can share documents directly in Zoom. One way to do share documents is to upload a file from the chat box. Click on the “Chat” icon in the Zoom toolbar. A file icon will appear in the lower right hand corner of the chat  box. Participants can upload a file.

breakout15.png

Another way to share/ collaborate on documents in Zoom is to start a Google Docs or Google Slides and paste the hyperlink in the chat box. This will allow multiple people to edit and work on a document synchronously and asynchronously.

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ENTERING/ MODERATING BREAKOUT ROOMS (HOST) 

As a host, you can choose to join any breakout room.

  1. To do so, go to the breakout room option on your toolbar. Click the “Join” button next to the breakout room you wish to join. To leave a breakout room, click “Leave Breakout Room”
  2. Select “Broadcast a message to all” to notify all participants of any messages you wish to convey. A banner will be displayed at the top of the meeting. 

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MOVE PARTICIPANTS BETWEEN BREAKOUT ROOMS

  1. Hover over a user’s name in the breakout list.
  2. Choose which room to move the participant to.

breakout16.png

For a video tutorial, view here:

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