Introduction
Meeting “Organizers” are able to create Breakout Rooms, moving participants from the main meeting into separate rooms for small group work. This article reviews how to use the advanced communication and management settings available to the organizer during the meeting.
Please Note: Organizers are the only user who can create breakout rooms and they must be in one of the meeting’s rooms throughout the meeting when rooms are open. Organizers are the individual who created the original meeting, and this role cannot be re-assigned or switched to another.
Table of Contents:
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Set how participants will be sent to rooms
Participants can be provided the choice to join or forced into Breakout rooms. By default, users are automatically moved to open rooms. This is how to adjust that setting:
1. Click the “more actions” icon at the top of the Breakout Rooms panel (it looks like an ellipsis), a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select the “Rooms settings” option.
3. Check or uncheck the “Automatically move people into opened rooms” box.
a. By checking the box, attendees will see a countdown to warn them that they are being sent to the breakout room.
b. By unchecking the box, attendees will be presented with a pop-up asking if they want to “Join” or “Deny” the request.
i. Please Note: Organizers will be able to see who joined from the Breakout Rooms panel.
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Add a Breakout Room after initial setup
1. Click the “Add room” button in the Breakout Rooms panel, a new room will appear. The room will be closed and needs to be opened (see “Open Breakout Rooms”).
2. There will be no participants in this room until you assign people to it. (See “Switch or remove participants between Breakout Rooms”)
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Delete a Breakout Room
1. Click the “more options” icon (it looks like an ellipsis…) next to each room that you wish to delete, a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select the “Delete room” option.
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Switch or remove participants between Breakout Rooms
Currently, you can only move participants in to breakout rooms from the main room. This means that you need to close a breakout room A before you move the participants in to breakout room B.
1. Click the “more actions” icon next to breakout room (looks like an ellipsis), a drop-down menu appears.
2. Select the “Close room” option from the drop-down menu.
3. Expand the participant list of the room listed in the Breakout Rooms panel.
4. Click the checkbox next to the name of the participant that you want to move.
5. Click the “more options” icon for that room, and a drop-down menu will appear.
6. Select the new room that you want the participant to enter.
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Recording in a Single Breakout Room
The organizer does have the ability to start recording in each room separately. There is not a universal setting at this time that can be activated to record all the rooms.
1. Click the “more actions” icon (it looks like an ellipsis…) in the meeting toolbar for that Breakout room, a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select the “Start recording” option from the drop-down menu.
· Please Note: repeat steps to select “Stop recording” or close Breakout room to end recording.
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Sharing and Accessing Files/Room Chat
Participants in a Breakout Room do have access to a separate chat from the main meeting’s chat for sharing and accessing files.
Please note: all files and messages sent in the Breakout Room is sent to the organizer and the other participants of that room. Once the room is closed, only Organizers can continue to post to the chat, the chat is locked for all other participants. They can view the chat history, but they cannot add to it.
1. Click the “Chat” icon in the Breakout Room’s meeting toolbar.
2. Select the “Attach” icon (looks like a paperclip) below the chat textbox, this opens a file picker.
3. Select the file that needs to be attached.
4. Click the “Open” button to upload the file.
5. Click the “Send” icon (looks like an arrow pointing to the right-hand side of the screen) in the chat box.
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What participants can and cannot do in a Breakout Room
Participants in a Breakout Room:
1. Can share their screen and start a Whiteboard (they have abilities that normally only go to “Presenters” in a meeting and are not usually given to “Attendees”).
2. Can start and stop a recording.
3. Cannot invite additional participants.
4. Will not see suggestions of people who should join (Organizers can).
5. Cannot get meeting details or dial out.
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Recreate (Reset) Breakout Rooms
Return to the beginning of the breakout rooms process to start over and reconfigure your rooms and assignments.
1. Select the “more options” icon at the top of the breakout rooms panel.
2. Click the “Recreate rooms.”
3. Follow the steps in the article, “How to create Breakout Rooms” to create new rooms.
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Re-open Breakout Rooms
Organizers do have the ability to re-open the Breakout Rooms in a meeting. All participants who were previously in that room will be able to access the chat history and files that were shared previously. New participants assigned to the room will only have access to the chat and resources shared after they entered the room for the first time.
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