Using Zoom Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms are an ideal way to split a Zoom meeting into separate sessions for smaller, private group discussions without leaving the original meeting. As the meeting host, you can choose to move the participants into these breakout rooms automatically or manually and can switch between sessions at any time to assist or monitor each group individually. Up to 50 breakout rooms can be created for a Zoom meeting, each with full audio, video and screen share capabilities for breakout room participants.

Getting Started with Breakout Rooms

If you HAVE NOT used breakout rooms in Zoom, you must first verify that you have them enabled for your account. If you HAVE used breakout rooms under your account, you can skip ahead to the next section.

Browse to https://drexel.zoom.us.
Select Sign in Standard.
Sign in using your Drexel credentials.
From the menu on the left, select Settings.
Scroll down to the In Meeting (Advanced) section (about halfway down the page) and make sure the Breakout room option is enabled (set to blue).

Creating Breakout Rooms - Ad Hoc
Creating Breakout Rooms - Pre-Assigned
Managing Breakout Rooms
Moving Participants to Breakout Rooms
Managing Breakout Rooms in Progress
Broadcasting a Message to All Breakout Rooms
Returning Participants to the Meeting

Creating Breakout Rooms - Ad Hoc

While connected to the Zoom meeting, select Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls at the bottom.
Set the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
- Automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms
- Manually: Choose which participants you would like in each room
Select Create Rooms.

Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically. You can manage the rooms prior to starting them.

Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms - Ad Hoc

From the Breakout Rooms window, select Assign next to Breakout Room 1.
Select the participants you want to be assigned to that room.
Repeat steps 1-2 for each breakout room until all participants have been assigned to a room.

Once a participant has been assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in place of the Assign button.

Creating Breakout Rooms - Pre-Assigned

To pre-assign guests to a breakout room, they must have a valid Zoom account (you will need the email address they are registered with) and you must first enable the option to do so under your settings.

Browse to https://drexel.zoom.us.
Select Sign in Standard.
Sign in using your Drexel credentials.
From the menu on the left, select Settings.
Scroll down to the In Meeting (Advanced) section and check the *Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling.

Now that pre-assigning guests is enabled, you will need to add the breakout room assignments to your meeting.

From the https://drexel.zoom.us website, select Meetings.
Edit the meeting you wish to add pre-assigned breakout rooms to or schedule a new meeting.
Check Breakout Room pre-assign under Meeting Options.
Select Import from CSV.
Select download at the top of the window to download a sample template.
Open the downloaded template file and edit it using the Drexel email address for each student (abc123@drexel.edu).
Save the template and drag it into the Zoom Import Rooms and Participants form CSV file window.
Select Save.

To use the pre-assigned breakout rooms:

While connected to the Zoom meeting, select Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls at the bottom.
Select Recreate.
Select Recover to pre-assigned rooms.

Managing Breakout Rooms

After assigning participants to breakout rooms, you can rearrange the participants or alter the rooms as needed. Participants who are not assigned to breakout sessions will remain in the main meeting when the rooms are started.

Managing Participants

From the Breakout Rooms window, select the participant count next to the room the participant is in.
Uncheck the participant you wish to move.
Select the participant count next to the breakout room the participant is going to.
Select the participant from the list to add them to the new room.

Managing Rooms

To rename or delete a breakout room, hover over the room name and select the appropriate action.
To add an additional breakout room, select Add a Room.
To start over, use the Recreate drop down.

Moving Participants to Breakout Rooms

When you are ready to move participants to their rooms, select Open All Rooms. Participants will be notified they are moving and must accept the invitation. As the meeting host, you will remain in the main meeting.

Managing Breakout Rooms in Progress

Moving Participants to Different Breakout Rooms

Hover over the participant you wish to move.
Select Move To.
Select the breakout room you would like to move them to.

Joining a Breakout Room

Select Join next to the breakout room you would like to join.
When you are finished, select Leave Breakout Room in the meeting controls and then select Return to Main Session.

Broadcasting a Message to All Breakout Rooms

The host can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms to share information with all participants.

Select Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls.
Select Broadcast a message to all.
Enter your message in the space provided.
Select Broadcast.

The message will now appear for all participants in Breakout Rooms.

Returning Participants to the Meeting

Once all breakout sessions have been completed:

Select Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls.
Select Close All Rooms.

Participants will have 60 seconds to acknowledge the end of the breakout session after which time they will be forced back into the main meeting.