Breakout Rooms

Click on the "Breakout Rooms" tab at the bottom of the screen.

Choose the number of rooms you would like to have.

You can choose to have Zoom automatically select the rooms, or you can do it manually.

Note: Clicking "Create Breakout Rooms" does not mean you launch the rooms. You will still have the opportunity to make edits.

Preview breakout rooms.

In this preview section you will see where the participants have been assigned, and you will also have additional options at the bottom left corner.

Additional Options.

Here, you will have all of the following options presented. We normally change the countdown timer.

Countdown timer.

We recommend selecting 30 seconds maximum after you close the breakout groups. This will allow 30 seconds for participants to finish their conversations before they are forced back into the main session.

Recreate breakout groups.

The "Recreate" tab at the bottom allows you to change the number of groups, and the way participants have been selected. This is particularly useful when additional people have joined the call after you created the breakout groups.

When you are ready to launch the rooms, click "Open All Rooms."

Zoom will tell you when participants join.

If they have not joined, instruct them to follow the prompt that appears on their screen.

You can move participants around if needed.

To do this, hover your mouse on the area of the screen shown below and select the room of choice.

You can also join any room you would like.

This is highly encouraged during long exercises to check in on each group and see how they are doing like you would do by walking around in an in-person setting.

You can join other groups or leave to the main session whenever.

Lastly, you can broadcast messages to all the groups.

Click on "broadcast message to all" and type in your message. It's good to give groups a heads up before closing the breakout sessions. When you are done, click "Close All Rooms"

Breakout groups are now closing.

The time selected at the beginning will show up at the bottom, and participants will have that amount of time to get back to the main session.

You got it! You're ready to use breakout rooms!