Whether you’re new to the idea of using breakout rooms, or you’ve been using them for a while and are looking for new ways to shake things up, these tips and suggestions can help.
A breakout room is a private discussion and screen sharing space within a larger synchronous online meeting. These are typically used in support of smaller group-based learning. Breakout rooms work differently whether you’re in Zoom or Teams.
Zoom. (2021).
If this is your first time looking into using breakout rooms, visit:
The ways in which we engage in collaborative learning are increasingly diverse. Synchronous online meetings are a core element of collaborative activities, and offer the chance to give “face to face” interaction to the online learning experience (Sobko, Unadkat, Adams, & Hull, 2020). Time in breakout rooms should be complemented by asynchronous activities, which helps to make sure everyone can contribute when and how they are able.
Be careful in how you prepare students to participate in breakout rooms. Some research suggests that students can get a bit lost or might need help with what to expect when joining or choosing a breakout room (Fitchen et al., 2021). Carefully scaffold learners’ participation in breakout rooms into your instruction.
Before Creating Breakout Rooms
Prepare learners for the activity you’re going to ask them to do. Make sure you clearly explain to students:
the process by which they will join the room;
how they can ask for help;
the expectations for their activity in the room.
For example, you might use a presentation slide to illustrate the process by which learners will be invited into a room. Consider adding one of our example slides below in your own presentations, or adapting it to suit your need. For extra help, direct learners to the Library’s Tech Tutors.
You might also carefully construct a slide to introduce an activity. In the slide:
Example slide introducing an activity.
Be clear and concise in your wording;
Emphasize activity deliverables;
Set clear time limits;
Where possible, use collaborative docs structured as handouts to guide activity and discussion.
Creating Automatically and Randomly Assigned Rooms
Choose to assign rooms automatically when you’d like students to be randomly assigned. This is the most efficient way to create breakout rooms, and lets learners meet a variety of peers, helping to build their social presence.
Try setting the breakout rooms to close after a specific time, and set a countdown that lets learners wrap up their work.
Try setting up automatic breakout rooms, and also pre-setting time limits on the rooms. This gives learners a timer in the room, so they know what to expect. This also allows the rooms to close automatically, saving you a step or two.
In a subsequent activity, you can choose to keep the same breakout rooms, or choose to Recreate breakout rooms. This keeps the same number of groups, but changes up who is in each room.
Automatic assignment is probablythe most frequently used breakout room set up for most active learning activities. Some favourites using this approach are:
Recreating breakout rooms can allow you to efficiently randomize participants, to encourage them to connect with peers.
Perhaps you’re running a get-to-know each other activity, or having students show each other examples, and you’d like them to connect with another person or group. Once you’ve already created breakout rooms, choose to use the Recreate option to automatically switch students to new breakout rooms. This will keep the same number of rooms, but randomize the participants in each.
If you’re choosing to recreate rooms, be careful to explain the rationale for the change to the learners. Some may have formed connections with peers, or experience anxiety when meeting new people. Prepare learners that the activity will have them mixing and mingling and be prepared to support the ways learners choose to engage.
Recreating rooms is best used sparingly. It can be most effective when learners are still getting to know each other, and in contexts where varied perspectives and inputs will add value to their learning. Try it out in ice breaker activities where you’d like participants to connect, and recreate no more than once or twice. Be mindful that you use a suitably slower pace and guiding visuals, such as presentation slides with instructions.
You might use the recreate option in activities like:
Using choice-based assignment might be best for learners who already feel comfortable with breakout rooms and using Zoom. In some activities, you might want to allow students to select their own breakout room. This supports choice in topics and learner autonomy. As of publication, this feature is not yet available in Teams.
To allow learners to choose their breakout room in Zoom, you can either create new breakout rooms set up for this purpose, or you can enable the feature on existing rooms.
Create breakout rooms with room choice, or enable breakout rooms with choice.
Choice can be best used in active learning activities like:
courses where learners collaborate on projects throughout a semester.
Begin by creating the groups. This could be done in many different ways: e.g. pull a class email list from the Employee Portal, or ask students to sign up for their group in a simple Excel file with a few columns – the topic, their name, and their email. Then, download the Breakout Room Pre-Assignment file.
Next, copy over the email addresses into the appropriate rooms in the Breakout Room Pre-Assignment file. You can rename the rooms. Then, upload this into your Zoom meeting. Watch our video to learn how.
Teaching and Learning (2022). Pre-Assigning Breakout Rooms. [2:47]
Joining Breakout Rooms
In order to monitor and supervise students as they engage in breakout room activities, you may want to join the breakout rooms. You can efficiently do this in the Breakout Room window, once the rooms are open.
Breakout rooms in progress menu, with the join option available for each room.
If you plan to join rooms in order to support and guide learners, consider some of the following:
Inform the learners you’ll be visiting their rooms, as this will let them know what to expect. You’re there to help, first and foremost.
Your appearance will be sudden, and this can derail conversation, so consider how you can make your appearance welcome to learners.
Remind learners they can call you in for help. Clarify how you will respond if you are already helping someone else.
Think carefully about which groups may be in more direct need of support, and join them first. Especially when using pre-assigned groups, following the room list may lead to Room 1 getting more quality time with you, while other groups have less.
Consider using shared collaborative docs as handouts, so that you can monitor breakout room activities unobtrusively. This frees you up to intervene where directly required.
Sharing your Screen into Breakout Rooms
To further support learners in staying on task in breakout activities, share your screen into the breakout roomsonce the rooms have been opened. This option only appears in your Share Screen menu once breakout rooms have been opened.
Share screen menu, with option to share screen into breakout rooms. This option appears once breakout rooms are opened.
Broadcasting Voice or Text Messages
Broadcast icon.
You can also broadcast text or voice into the rooms, to give students reminders. Once rooms are open, press and hold theB button on your keyboard to do a voice broadcast. When you start a voice broadcast, there will be an icon indicating the audio is transmitting. Only the meeting host can broadcast a message. Ask students to pause their conversation, then announce your message. Learn more about broadcasting audio in Zoom.
Alternatively, you can or use the Broadcast option in the Breakout Room window to send a text message.
Broadcast a text message to students in their breakout room via text.
Supporting Learners in using Zoom and Breakout Rooms
The Library’s Teach Me Tech services offer students one-to-one support and workshops on the different technologies used in their courses. The Digital Skills Toolkit offers tutorials which can be added to your course to help them with any technology you’re using in your course.
Fichten, C., Havel, A., Wileman, S., Jorgensen, M., Arcuri, R. Vo, C. & Ruffolo, O. (2021). Digital tools faculty expect students to use during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021: Problems and Solutions for Future Hybrid and Blended Courses. Journal of Education and Training Studies. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v9i8.5310
Sobko S, Unadkat D, Adams J, Hull G. (2020). Learning through collaboration: A networked approach to online pedagogy. E-Learning and Digital Media17(1). 36-55.
Jess Wilkinson
Jesslyn is an Educational Technology Consultant at
Conestoga. An Ontario Certified Teacher, and holding a M. Ed.
and B.Ed., Jesslyn researches and promotes new technologies
for faculty to enhance pedagogical practices. She brings to
the role her experience as a Google and Microsoft certified
technology trainer and as a classroom teacher in South
Korea, Mongolia, and Ontario, focusing on special education
and assistive learning technologies. She is available for
workshops, consultations, and support with using technology
in higher education contexts.
