Breakout Rooms

Allow participants to collaborate in smaller groups in up to 50 separate sessions within the same meeting using the Breakout Room feature.  The host can place participants into rooms manually, automatically, or allow participants to place themselves into rooms.   

• The host of a meeting must use a computer when Breakout Rooms will be used.  Users joined into the Zoom meeting from the Zoom Mobile App or H.323/SIP devices can participate in breakout rooms, but cannot manage them.  The list of supported devices is located in this Zoom article:
  https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476313-Managing-Breakout-Rooms. 
• Participants have full audio, video, and share screen capability in a breakout room (if host settings allow).

Confirm the Breakout Rooms Setting is Enabled

Sign into your account on the website portal at https://www.conferzoom.org/.

1. 1. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
   2. Click the Meeting tab.
   3. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Breakout room toggle to enable the setting if it isn't already enabled.
   4. Additional breakout room options are available. Note the desktop client version requirements before toggling to enable. If you cannot make adjustments to the additional breakout room options, the Zoom admin may have locked these options.

Pre-assign Participants to a Breakout Room

Breakout Room pre-assignment can only be done on the website portal.  Participants will automatically be placed into the room when the host opens the Breakout Room.  

Note: This additional option must be enabled in your Settings > Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Breakout Rooms > Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling. Participants will need to have a Zoom account and the desktop client downloaded in order for you to add their Zoom account associated email address for pre-assignment.

1. Click Meetings and Schedule a meeting.
2. In the Meeting Options section, select Breakout Room pre-assign and click Create Rooms.
3. Click the plus button beside Rooms to add more breakout rooms.
4. Hover over the default breakout room name in the right panel and click the pencil button to rename it.
5. In the Add participants text box, search for internal participants by name or email address, or manually enter the email address of external users, and then press Enter to to add them to the breakout room. 
6. (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 icon. 
7. Click Save.

In Live Meeting: Creating Breakout Rooms

When the Breakout Room feature is enabled, the icon will appear on the meeting tool bar.

1. Click Breakout Rooms.
2. Select the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
   • Assign Automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms.
     • 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. 
   • Assign Manually: Choose which participants you would like in each room.
   • Let participants choose room: Participants can select and enter rooms on their own. 
   • Load pre-assigned rooms: Choose from pre-assignments or previously saved assignments. 
3. Click Create.
4. Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically. You can manage the rooms prior to starting them by following the instructions below. 

In Live Meeting:  Manually 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.

In Live Meeting: 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: 
  • Recreate all Rooms: Deletes existing breakout rooms and allows the host/co-host to create new ones. 
  • 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. They will be able to enter and leave breakout rooms freely once you have opened the breakout rooms. 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. 

In Live Meeting: 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.

In Live Meeting: 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.

In Live Meeting: 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.

In Live Meeting: Broadcasting a Message to All Breakout Rooms

The host or co-hosts can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms to share information with all participants. This can be done from the main session or from within a breakout room.

Note: This additional option must be enabled in your Settings > Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Breakout Rooms > Allow hosts to broadcast message to participants.

1. Click Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls.
2. After opening breakout rooms, click Broadcast message to all, enter your message, and click Broadcast.
3. The message will now appear for all participants in breakout rooms.

In Live Meeting: View Breakout Rooms activities from main session

Note: This additional option must be enabled in your Settings > Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Breakout Rooms > Allow host to view activity statuses of participants in breakout rooms (e.g. share screen, reactions).

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. 

In Live Meeting: 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 as once, guiding them on 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. 

In Live Meeting: Recording Breakout Rooms

If the meeting is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main meeting and none of the breakouts will be captured, regardless of what room the meeting host is in. It is currently only possible to record in breakout rooms with local recording. The host must allow specific participants to record locally and it will only record the room the participant who is recording is in. Multiple participants can be given permission to record locally.