Zoom: Breakout Rooms

Introduction

Breakout Rooms allow you to divide your Zoom meeting into separate sessions that take place simultaneously. Each breakout room is its own meeting within a meeting, complete with audio and video conferencing, screen sharing, and chat. Both meeting hosts and co-hosts can create breakout rooms during a meeting, manage room participants, join any individual room, broadcast messages to all rooms, and close all rooms as needed. However, only hosts can set up breakout rooms ahead of time with pre-assigned participants for added convenience. Find out more about setting up and managing breakout rooms below.

Enabling Breakout Rooms

Go to the Quinnipiac Zoom web portal (https://quinnipiac.zoom.us) and click Sign in.
You may be directed to the Quinnipiac Single Sign-On (SSO) page where you will need to login with your standard Quinnipiac username and password.
Click Settings in the left-hand navigation bar and select the Meeting tab. Then click on the In Meeting (Advanced) sub-menu. Under Breakout room - Meetings, make sure the toggle switch is in the ON position (blue). Also make sure that the first checkbox, Assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling, is checked, to allow the host to pre-assign participants to breakout rooms for scheduled meetings.

Creating Breakout Rooms During Meeting

Meeting hosts and co-hosts can create Breakout Rooms during a meeting in one of the following ways: automatically assign participants, manually assigning them, or let participants choose their own room. If you would like to pre-assign participants to breakout rooms, view the next two sections: Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms in the Web Portal and Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms Using a CSV File.

Start a meeting and then click Breakout Rooms in the Zoom meeting toolbar.
Then select the number of rooms you wish to create, and choose the creation method:
1. Assign automatically - automatically divides your participants into evenly distributed groups by random selection.
2. Assign manually - allows you to choose which participants are assigned to which rooms. If you have a larger class size, it is recommended that you pre-assign participants when scheduling your meeting.
3. Let participants choose room - allows the host/co-host to determine how many rooms to create, then the participants get to choose which breakout room they wish to join.
Click Create to create the Breakout Rooms.
NOTE: Breakout Rooms will be created but will not be started automatically. Follow the instructions further down under Breakout Room Options to manage room settings.
If you selected the option to allow the participant to choose a breakout room set the number of rooms to create, the participants will receive a notification in their Zoom Dashboard to join a breakout room, once you have clicked on Open all rooms.
Participants will click on Join breakout room in their Zoom Dashboard to choose their room and will be able to join the breakout room of their choice. They will also be able to see the names of the other participants that have already chosen that room.
If you allow students to choose their own breakout room, when they are in the room, they can join other rooms at their own discretion. This might be helpful when doing a Jigsaw or Gallery Walk activity.

NOTE: The host/co-host can still control who is where and can jump in and out of different breakout rooms as needed.

Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms in the Web Portal

When scheduling a meeting, you have the option to pre-assign participants to breakout rooms. Only the meeting host can do this. Pre-assigning breakout rooms can be done from the Zoom web portal or from within the Zoom Blackboard integration in your course. Skip this step if you are creating a meeting and pre-assigning breakout rooms in Blackboard.

Go to the Quinnipiac Zoom web portal (https://quinnipiac.zoom.us) and click Sign in.
You may be directed to the Quinnipiac Single Sign-On (SSO) page where you will need to login with your standard Quinnipiac username and password.
Click Meetings in the left-hand navigation bar and select the Upcoming tab. Then click on the Schedule a Meeting button.
Scroll to the bottom of the meeting details page and click on Show to expand the additional meeting options and check the Breakout Room pre-assign box. Then click on Create Rooms.
Click the (+) icon next to Rooms to add a new breakout room. Delete a room by hovering your mouse over it on the left and clicking the trash can icon. Modify the default room name by hovering your mouse over the name to find the pencil icon.
Add participants to each breakout room by selecting the room on the left and searching for a participant’s name in the Add participants field on the right. If you are in Blackboard, you will need to type the person’s full Quinnipiac email address and hit the Enter/Return key (e.g., John.Smith@quinnipiac.edu).

NOTE: Participants you search for and add must be logged into Zoom via Single Sign-On (SSO) when joining the meeting to appear in their pre-assigned Breakout Rooms there.
Manage group participants with Move to and Remove. Move a participant to a different group or remove the participant from the group altogether. Click Save to save changes.
Edit any existing Breakout Rooms back under Meeting Options in your web portal or Blackboard Meeting Settings.

NOTE: Students must be logged in with their QU accounts to the Zoom meting to show up in the pre-assigned breakout rooms. If they are signed in as a GUEST they will not show up in the pre-assigned room. You can direct students to this YuJa Video if they need assistance on how to log into a Zoom meeting with their QU account.

Editing an Already Created Zoom Meeting to Add Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

Sign into the Quinnipiac Zoom web portal or sign into Blackboard. If pre-assigning breakout rooms in Blackboard, open a course after signing in and access the Zoom integration area (e.g., “Zoom Meeting”).
Click Meetings in the left-hand navigation bar and under the Upcoming tab, hover your mouse pointer over your already scheduled meeting and then click on the Edit button that appears. You can skip this step if you are creating a meeting and pre-assigning breakout rooms in Blackboard.
If this is a recurring meeting with multiple instances, you will be asked if you want to Edit This Occurrence or Edit Entire Series. You must select Edit Entire Series.

NOTE: If you choose Only this meeting, and only make changes to one date, the breakout rooms will not stick. You must choose ALL and then after that day ends, you can go back in before the next session and make changes. Each time you want to make a change, you must make it for ALL meetings going forward and make changes after the meeting ends for future occurrences.
Scroll to the bottom of the meeting details page and click on Show to expand the additional meeting options and check the Breakout Room pre-assign box. Then click on Create Rooms. You can now follow the directions for creating rooms or import from CSV (Section Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms, Step 5, above)

Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms Using a CSV File

As with manually assigning participants to Breakout Rooms described above, if you include participants with Quinnipiac email addresses, those participants must be logged into Zoom via Single Sign-On (SSO) when joining the meeting to appear in their pre-assigned Breakout Rooms there.

Sign into the Quinnipiac Zoom web portal or sign into Blackboard. If pre-assigning breakout rooms in Blackboard, open a course after signing in and access the Zoom integration area (e.g., “Zoom Meeting”).
Click Meetings in the left-hand navigation bar and select the Upcoming tab. Then click on the Schedule a Meeting button. You can skip this step if you are creating a meeting and pre-assigning breakout rooms in Blackboard.
Scroll to the bottom of the meeting details page and click on Show to expand the additional meeting options and check the Breakout Room pre-assign box. Then click Import from CSV. Manually creating rooms is described in the section above titled Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms in the Web Portal.
In the Import Rooms and Participants from CSV file popup window, click download at the top of the window to download a sample template to fill out. Open this sample template file and input group names and email addresses in the existing columns (CSV files can be opened with spreadsheet editing applications such as Microsoft Excel). Save the file once you are finished.
From the same Import Rooms and Participants from CSV file popup window, upload your CSV file by either clicking browse and choosing the file from your saved location or simply drag and drop the file onto any space within the dotted blue border.
Edit any existing Breakout Rooms back under Meeting Options in your web portal Meeting Settings.

Breakout Room Options

After you have created your Breakout Rooms, you can modify the options for those rooms from within your Zoom Meeting. Click on the Breakout rooms button on the toolbar. In the Breakout rooms popup window, click on Options. Then select the desired options.

A screenshot of a Zoom meeting window with a red arrow pointing to the Breakout rooms button on the toolbar. Another red arrow points to the Options link in the Breakout rooms popup window. Red letters are positioned next to selectable options.

Item Description A Allow participants to choose room – in a case where this was not initially selected when rooms were created, you can allow participants to do so once the rooms are created. B Allow participants to return to main session at any time – allows participants to leave a breakout room at their discretion; leaving it unchecked requires the host to close the breakout rooms before participants can leave. C Automatically move all assigned/selected participants into breakout rooms – automatically moves assigned/selected participants into rooms when they are opened; leaving it unchecked will require participants to click Join to enter a breakout room. D Breakout rooms close automatically after ‘x’ minutes – set a time limitation on how long the breakout rooms are opened; participants see a timer while in the breakout room; optional notification for host/co-host when time is up, presenting a pop-up message with the choice to leave rooms open or close them. E Countdown after closing breakout room – set a countdown timer to give participants time to finish up their discussions and work before exiting the breakout rooms; participants will see the timer.

Preparing Breakout Rooms

After you have created your Breakout Rooms, you can rearrange which participants are in which breakout rooms, modify the breakout room names, and add and delete rooms. Additionally, you add participants to rooms who have not yet been assigned.

To rename and delete a Breakout Room, hover your mouse over the breakout room name and select Rename or Delete. Manually assign participants by clicking on Assign.
View existing participants, once they have been assigned, by clicking on the number to the right.
Select a participant to Move to another group or Exchange (swap) with a participant in another group.
The meeting host is able to add more rooms or recreate all rooms. Recreating rooms deletes all existing rooms and creates new rooms for you to automatically or manually assign participants. Add a room if you need additional ones.
If you have set the participants to automatically join their assigned Breakout Rooms, they will join immediately. If that option was left unselected in Options, participants will be prompted to click a Join button. The host will remain in the main session until joining an individual room.

Managing Breakout Rooms in Progress

To rename rooms or add rooms (Steps 1 and 2 below) while existing rooms are open, you must first enable this functionality in your Zoom web portal settings. After logging in there, go to Settings on the left, click the Meeting tab, and then click on the In Meeting (Advanced) sub-menu to find the Breakout room - Meetings section. Make sure that the check the box next to Create, rename, and delete breakout rooms when rooms are open is checked. Click Save when ready.

A screenshot of the Zoom web portal with red arrows pointing to the Settings left-hand navigation menu, the Meeting tab, and the In Meeting (Advanced) sub-menu. Under the Breakout room - Meetings section, the Create, rename, and delete breakout rooms when rooms are open check box is highlighted in red.

NOTE: Please be aware of the notification displayed when enabling this function. Participants are required to have a minimum version of the Zoom application on their computer to join a meeting with this enabled.

If your breakout rooms need new names but you need to save time, change them while they’re open. You cannot delete a room while people are in it, or once people have joined it and left. In those cases, the rooms must be closed and re-opened.
If you need additional rooms for expanded group topics, more people, or similar scenarios, you can create them on the fly and move participants to them as needed.
Join a Breakout Room to engage with individual groups.
If participants need assistance from the host, they can click the Ask for Help from within a Breakout Room. Once a participant clicks the Ask for Help button in the Breakout Room toolbar, a notification is presented to the host prompting them to Join Breakout Room or defer until Later.
Share information will all the participants in the different Breakout Rooms at once by using the Broadcast a message to all function. Click Broadcast a message to all, type your message, and then click Broadcast to send it. The message will appear on the screens of all Breakout Room participants.
A host or co-host may leave a Breakout Room after joining it. Participants may leave a Breakout Room only if they have been given that choice by the host/co-host through the Breakout Room Options. When leaving, you will be prompted with options to End Meeting for All, Leave Meeting, Leave Breakout Room, and Cancel to return to the Breakout Room.
One or more participants can be moved back to the Main Session from their breakout room without the need to close or disrupt any breakout rooms in progress. Open the breakout rooms window and hover over the person’s name. Then, 1) click Move to and 2) select Main Session. The participants will receive a pop-up notification alerting them that you are asking them to rejoin the Main Session, and they can choose to Join immediately or select Not Now.
Rooms are closed after the specified amount of time set in Options. Participants are shown a timer to indicate the countdown while still in their Breakout Room.