Introduction
Meeting “Organizers” are able to create Breakout Rooms, moving participants from the main meeting into separate rooms for small group work. Participants can be assigned randomly or manually by the meeting Organizer. Breakout Rooms can be created at the beginning of the meeting. A user cannot be assigned to a room until they are in the main room.
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.
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How to create Breakout Rooms
1. Click the “Breakout Rooms” button in the meeting toolbar, the “Breakout Rooms” panel will open in the meeting screen.
2. Select how many rooms you want to create with the “Room Settings” drop-down menu (a maximum of 50 rooms can be created in a single meeting).
3. Select how you would like to assign participants:
a. Automatically (all eligible participants who can be sent will be evenly distributed/assigned between the rooms).
i. Please Note: the “Automatically” option is only available when you first assign participants. If they are assigned manually at first, this option will no longer be available for the remainder of the session.
b. Manually (select which participants will be sent to a specific room).
Please Note: All rooms are “Closed” by default after creation; participants cannot access/view/enter them yet. The Organizer needs to manually “Open Breakout Rooms” when ready.
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Assign participants manually to rooms
1. Click the “Assign participants” button near the top of the panel.
2. Hover cursor over a participant’s name until checkboxes appear.
3. Select the checkbox next to the participant’s name to begin assigning them.
4. Select the “more options” button and choose a room from the list.
5. Repeat this process until all participants have been assigned to rooms.
To view the participants assigned to a Breakout Room, expand the arrow next to the room's name.
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Open Breakout Rooms
Users can open Breakout Rooms all together simultaneously or one by one.
· All rooms together:
· Click the “Open Room” button in the Breakout Rooms panel.
· One by one:
· Click the “more options” icon (looks like an ellipsis) next to the name of the room you wish to open, a drop-down list will appear.
· Select the “Open room” option.
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Rename Breakout Rooms
All rooms by default will be named Room1, Room 2, down the line. To rename the rooms for customization:
1. Click the “more options” icon (it looks like an ellipsis…) next to the name of the specific room that you want to rename, a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select the “Rename room” option, a dialog box will open.
3. Enter the new name for the room in the textbox.
4. Click the “Rename room” button.
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Joining a Breakout Room as the Organizer
The organizer cannot be in all of the Breakout Rooms simultaneously. The organizer does have the ability to move from room to room.
1. Click the “more actions” icon (it looks like an ellipsis…) next to the name of the Breakout Room that you want to enter, a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Select the “Join” option on the drop-down menu.
· Please Note: there are no notifications to the other users when you enter the room. It is a best practice to send a chat message to the room to forewarn the participants of your arrival to minimize privacy/information sharing concerns.
3. Select the “Return” button in the toolbar to go back to the main room.
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Closing Breakout Rooms
Organizers do have the ability to close Breakout Rooms and pull all participants back to the original/main meeting, or close each room individually. Participants do not have the ability to close an individual room or return to the main meeting on their own.
To close all rooms together:
1. Click the “Close rooms” button at the top of the Breakout Rooms panel.
To close each room individually:
1. Click the “more actions” icon next to the name of the room (looks like an ellipsis), a drop-down menu appears.
2. Select the “Close room” option from the drop-down menu.
Select “Resume” when everyone is back from their breakout rooms and you're ready to meet as a larger group again.
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