Breakout rooms in Zoom

This feature in Zoom allows you to sort your students into small groups where they can collaborate on projects, discuss topics or brainstorm ideas. If you have a large class, breaking students up into smaller groups helps build connection between students and ensures that everyone in the group has a voice.

The breakout rooms in Zoom can be pre-assigned before the meeting starts or they can be created once the meeting has started. Once rooms have been created students can be assigned automatically or manually to a room. Alternatively, you may decide to let students choose their own rooms.

This video explains how to create breakout rooms in Zoom

Once breakout rooms are in use there are several features which can be utilized:

Hosts can share their screens to all breakout rooms. This feature is useful if students have to work through the information the host is sharing without having to make their own copy before heading to a breakout room
Hosts and co-hosts can join any breakout room
Hosts and co-hosts can broadcast messages to all rooms either from the main room or any breakout room
Participants can ask for help once in a breakout room
Participants in breakout rooms can be granted permission to record their own session.
The host can set a countdown timer that will appear when breakout sessions are about to end.

Additional resources

USask Knowledge base article

https://jira.usask.ca/servicedesk/customer/kb/view/1945563073?q=Using+breakout+rooms+in+Zoom

Enabling breakout rooms

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476093-Getting-Started-with-Video-Breakout-Rooms

Setting up breakout rooms in advance

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360032752671-Pre-assigning-participants-to-breakout-rooms

Managing breakout rooms

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476313-Managing-Breakout-Rooms