MS Teams - Basic Breakout rooms (for Faculty and Staff)

Relevant to: faculty, staff, and students

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, and/or policies and procedures may affect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

Meeting organizers can create Breakout Rooms, moving participants from the main meeting into separate rooms for small group work. Participants can be assigned randomly or manually. Breakout Rooms can be created at the beginning of the meeting. A user cannot be assigned to a room until they have joined the main room.

Please Note: Organizers are the only users who can create breakout rooms and must remain in one of the meeting’s rooms throughout the meeting when rooms are open. The organizer is the individual who created the original meeting, and this role cannot be re-assigned or switched to another.

How to create Breakout Rooms

  1. Click the “Breakout Rooms” button in the meeting toolbar to open the Breakout Rooms panel.
  2. Select how many rooms to create using the “Room Settings” drop-down menu (maximum 50 rooms per meeting).
  3. Select how to assign participants:
    • Automatically: Evenly distributes eligible participants between rooms.
      • Please Note: The automatic option is only available during initial assignment. If manual assignment is chosen first, automatic will not be available for the remainder of the session.
    • Manually: Choose which participants go to each room.

Please Note: All rooms are “Closed” by default after creation. The organizer must manually open them when ready.

Assign participants manually to rooms

  1. Click the “Assign participants” button near the top of the panel.
  2. Hover over a participant’s name until checkboxes appear.
  3. Select the checkbox next to the participant’s name.
  4. Click the “more options” button and choose the room from the list.
  5. Repeat until all participants are assigned.

To view assigned participants in a Breakout Room, expand the arrow next to the room’s name.

Open Breakout Rooms

Open Breakout Rooms all together or individually:

  • All rooms together: Click the “Open Rooms” button in the Breakout Rooms panel.
  • Individually:
    • Click the “more options” icon (ellipsis) next to the room name.
    • Select “Open room” from the drop-down menu.

Rename Breakout Rooms

Rooms are initially named Room 1, Room 2, etc. To rename:

  1. Click the “more options” icon (ellipsis) next to the room you want to rename.
  2. Select “Rename room”, a dialog will appear.
  3. Enter the new name.
  4. Click “Rename room” to save.

Joining a Breakout Room as the Organizer

The organizer can only be in one room at a time but can move between rooms.

  1. Click the “more options” icon (ellipsis) next to the desired room.
  2. Select “Join”.

Please Note: Other participants do not receive a notification when you enter. It’s best practice to send a chat message beforehand to minimize privacy concerns.

To return to the main meeting, click “Return” in the meeting toolbar.

Closing Breakout Rooms

Organizers can close.

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