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Have you ever struggled to keep your virtual meetings or classes engaging and organized on Zoom? If so, Zoom breakout rooms are what you need.
By using this handy feature, you can split participants into smaller groups so they can have a more focused and detailed discussion. This boosts engagement and improves collaboration between employees. Just like Zoom, Microsoft teams is also incorporating this feature to let participants freely move between rooms.
You can even turn your recorded sessions into YouTube Shorts by using Framedrop and share the most knowledgeable and helpful parts of your meeting with the world.
So, if you don’t know how to set up breakout rooms in Zoom, keep reading. This detailed yet easy guide has everything you need to understand and use breakout rooms.
In Summary: How to Setup Breakout Rooms in Zoom
Creating Zoom breakout rooms is easy and can make your meetings more interactive. Here’s a quick overview:
- Enable Breakout Rooms: To enable breakout rooms, log into your Zoom account on the web, go to "Settings" under the "Personal" section, find the "In Meeting (Advanced)" settings, and turn on the breakout room option.
- Start the Meeting: Start the Zoom meeting from the desktop app or web portal as usual.
- Create Breakout Rooms: Click the "Breakout Rooms" button at the bottom of the meeting window and choose to assign participants automatically or manually.
- Manage the Rooms: Manage the rooms by renaming them, moving participants between rooms, and sending broadcast messages to all rooms if needed.
- Open All Rooms: Click "Open All Rooms" to start the breakout sessions and let participants join their assigned rooms.
- Close All Rooms: When you need to bring everyone back, click "Close All Rooms" to end the breakout sessions and return to the main meeting.
What are Zoom Breakout Rooms?
Zoom breakout rooms are a feature within Zoom meetings that allows the host to split participants into smaller groups. It creates separate sessions for more focused discussions, activities, or collaboration. This tool is especially useful for large meetings, online classes, workshops, or team-building exercises.
With Zoom breakout rooms, hosts can assign participants automatically or manually, manage how long the sessions last, and move participants between rooms as needed. Hosts also have the ability to broadcast messages to all breakout rooms simultaneously, making it easy to give instructions or share updates.
Benefits of Breakout Rooms in Zoom
These rooms (breakout rooms Zoom) are essential for improving collaborations between different departments. A few of its benefits include:
1. Share Hosting Duties
Breakout rooms make it easy to share hosting duties. Co-hosts can help manage the main meeting and breakout sessions with the ability to assign, start, and end breakout rooms, move between them, and send messages to everyone.
2. Keep Discussions on Track
Breakout rooms help keep discussions on track. Hosts can send announcements to all breakout rooms simultaneously, which is great for signaling when it’s time to wrap up or move on to the next topic.
3. Manage Long Sessions Easily
Zoom breakout rooms are useful for managing long meetings. You can close a session and start new ones as needed. It is perfect for longer events that require multiple rounds of discussions.
4. Provide Help Instantly
Breakout rooms allow hosts to provide help instantly. Participants can request the host to join their room for assistance by clicking the "Ask for Help" button. This secures that support is always available.
Additionally, if you want to improve the visual appeal of your virtual meetings, learn how to blur the background in Zoom to keep your meetings more professional and focused.
6. Monitor Engagement
Hosts are also able to monitor engagement levels in each breakout room in Zoom. The participant tab shows who is in each room and whether they are actively participating. This helps identify which groups may need more attention.
How to Create Breakout Rooms in Zoom?
If you don’t know how to make breakout rooms in Zoom, here’s what you need to do:
Step #1: Enable Breakout Rooms
First, log in to your Zoom account on the web. Navigate to the "Settings" page under the "Personal" section.
Now scroll down (you might have to search for a few seconds as there are lots of setting options). Then you’ll see the "In Meeting (Advanced)" option.
Underneath it, locate the "Breakout Room" option and switch it on. This will allow you to create breakout rooms during your meetings.
Step #2: Start Your Meeting
Once breakout rooms are enabled, start your Zoom meeting from the desktop app or web portal as you normally would.
Just make sure you have host privileges, or you won’t be able to create and manage breakout rooms.
Step #3: Open the Breakout Rooms Window:
During the meeting, click on the “Breakout Rooms” button at the bottom of the Zoom meeting window.
This will open the Breakout Rooms setup panel, where you can start creating rooms.
Step #4: Create Breakout Rooms
In the setup panel, choose how many breakout rooms you want to create. You have three options:
- Automatically: Zoom will randomly assign participants to the specified number of breakout rooms.
- Manually: You can select participants and assign them to specific rooms yourself.
- Let participants choose: In this option, they can choose the room they want to join.
Maximize Your Reach with AI
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Step #5: Assign Participants
If you chose the manual option, click on “Assign” next to each room to select which participants you want in each breakout room.
You can move participants between rooms if needed and adjust the number of rooms at any time.
Step #6: Adjust Breakout Room Settings
Before starting the breakout sessions, adjust the settings to fit your needs. You can allow participants to return to the main session at any time.
Zoom also allows the host to set a timer to close the rooms automatically after a certain period or a countdown timer to notify participants before the session ends.
Step #7: Open All Rooms
Once everything is set up, click “Open All Rooms” to start the breakout sessions.
Participants will see a prompt on their screen inviting them to join their assigned room, and the breakout sessions will begin.
Step #8: Monitor and Manage Rooms
As the host, you have the ability to move freely between breakout rooms to check in on different groups, offer assistance, or provide additional instructions.
You can also broadcast a message to all rooms at once if you need to communicate with everyone.
Step #9: Close Breakout Rooms
When the breakout sessions are finished, click “Close All Rooms.”
Participants will receive a notification with a countdown timer, giving them time to wrap up their discussions before being automatically returned to the main meeting.
We hope that by now you’ve understood how to do breakout rooms in Zoom and will use it to make your meetings more engaging.
Extra Tips for Running Zoom Breakout Rooms
If you want to manage your breakout rooms in the best way possible, follow these tips:
1. Plan Ahead
Preparation is key for a successful breakout session. Before the meeting, explain to participants why they are being placed into Zoom breakout rooms. You must set clear goals, so everyone understands the purpose of the meeting and is ready to engage.
2. Break the Ice
To ease any initial discomfort, start with a fun or unique question to get participants talking. This will create a relaxed atmosphere and encourage everyone to participate and communicate.
3. Be Ready for Technical Issues
Technical problems can happen at any time, so it's important to have a backup plan. Provide participants with clear instructions on what to do if they face any technical difficulties. By doing so, your session can continue smoothly despite any disruptions.
Convert Your Zoom Meetings into Meaningful Shorts with Framedrop.ai
Zoom breakout rooms are an outstanding solution for making your virtual meetings, classes, and events more interactive and engaging. By dividing participants into smaller groups, you create opportunities for focused discussions, better collaboration, and more meaningful connections.
Now here’s an exciting idea: why not take your Zoom experience even further? You can record breakout sessions and create engaging content from them.
With Framedrop, you can easily transform your Zoom recordings into YouTube Shorts or other shareable videos. This will maximize the value of your meetings and also allow you to reach a wider audience with your content.
Maximize Your Reach with AI
Supercharge your business' social media presence with Framedrop's AI-powered video highlights
FAQ
Yes, you can set up Zoom breakout rooms in advance by enabling the setting in your Zoom web portal. You can also pre-assign participants to specific rooms before the meeting starts, making the process smooth.
If you can’t see breakout rooms in Zoom, it might be because the feature is not enabled in your settings. Check your Zoom web portal settings under "In Meeting (Advanced)" and enable the “Breakout Rooms - Meeting” option.
Yes, hosts can allow participants to choose their own breakout room. To enable this, select the option to “Let Participants Choose” when setting up the breakout rooms during the meeting or in the settings beforehand.
Yes, these breakout rooms are private from each other. Participants in one breakout room cannot see or hear what is happening in other rooms. It provides a separate space for focused discussions or activities.
Zoom allows up to 200 participants in a single breakout room and supports up to 100 breakout rooms in a single meeting. However, it depends on your Zoom plan and meeting size.