The Zoom Help Center has full instructions on using Zoom. The instructions below are specific to Virginia Tech. To see other Zoom topics, please see Video Conferencing - Holding Zoom Conferences on a PC or Mobile Device.

This article details how to utilize breakout rooms in Virginia Tech Zoom.

Contents

• Breakout Room Features
• Enabling Breakout Rooms
• Creating Breakout Rooms
• Pre-assigning Breakout Rooms
  
  • Creating Rooms Manually
  • Importing Room Assignments from CSV
• Managing Breakout Rooms
  
  • Editing Breakout Rooms
  • Starting Breakout Sessions
  • Managing Ongoing Breakout Sessions
  • Managing Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms
  • Stopping Breakout Sessions
  • Screen Sharing to All Active Breakout Rooms
• Joining a Breakout Room
• Participating in a Breakout Room
• Asking for Help
• Leaving a Breakout Room
• Getting Help

Breakout Room Features

• Zoom's Breakout Room feature allows meeting hosts and co-hosts to automatically or manually split Zoom meetings in up to 50 separate Breakout Rooms.
• Each participant can use audio, video, and screen-sharing in Breakout Rooms.
• The host can share their screen to all active Breakout Rooms.
• You can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms via the web portal (virginiatech.zoom.us), not through the Zoom client or Zoom in Canvas. 
• Hosts and co-hosts can assign participants to breakout rooms. 

Screen sharing cannot be disabled for breakout rooms, so participants can always turn on their audio and video. To prevent and mitigate interruptions, use breakout room monitors: 

• Host and co-host monitors can respond to interruptions.
• Participant monitors can click the Ask for Help (question mark) icon in the breakout room, prompting the host to join the breakout room.

Pre-assign participants to breakout rooms whenever possible and notify hosts and co-hosts of their role in monitoring breakout rooms. 

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Enabling Breakout Rooms

1. Log into the Virginia Tech Zoom Portal.
2. Click Settings and go to In Meeting (Advanced). 
3. Enable Breakout room  - Meetings.
4. Check Assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling and click Save.
   

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Creating Breakout Rooms

1. Start an instant or scheduled meeting.
2. On the bottom menu, click Breakout Rooms.
   • If you don't see breakout rooms, click More.
     
3. Select the number of breakout rooms you would like to create and whether you would like participants to be assigned to rooms Automatically or Manually.
   
   • For automatically assigned rooms, Zoom will randomly split all participants into even groups.
   • For manually assigning participants to rooms, continue following these instructions.
4. Click Create Rooms. Your Breakout Rooms will be created, but they will not start yet.
   
5. To manually assign participants rooms (only if you didn't assign participants automatically):
   
   1. Click Assign next to the room you want to assign participants to, and check the box next to each participant you want in that room.
      
   2. Repeat this procedure for each room.
   3. Once a participant has been assigned to a room, the total number of participants will show instead of the Assign button.
   4. Unassigned participants will stay in the main meeting.

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Pre-assigning Breakout Rooms

These instructions assume that you've followed all steps under: Enabling Breakout Rooms.

1. Log into the Virginia Tech Zoom Portal.
2. Click Meetings. Your Zoom meetings, including the ones you scheduled in Canvas, will be listed. 
3. Hover over the meeting listing and click Edit.
   
   • If you have a recurring meeting and want to use the same breakout rooms and assignments, click Edit for all occurrences.
4. Go to Creating Rooms Manually or Importing Room Assignments from CSV.

Creating Rooms Manually

1. Next to Options, click Show.
2. Check the box for Breakout Room pre-assign.
3. Click +Create Rooms. 
4. In the Breakout Room Assignment popup, click [+] next to Rooms for each room you want to create. 
5. To add participants, type in participant names in the Add participants box. Be sure to spell their names correctly. 
6. Click Save.
7. Back in Meeting Settings, click Save. 

Importing Room Assignments From CSV

1. Next to Options, click Show.
2. Check the box for Breakout Room pre-assign.
3. Click Import from CSV. 
4. Click download to download a CSV template. 
5. Open the CSV file and note the formatting. 
   
   1. In column A, Pre-assign Room Name, enter the breakout room name. 
   2. In column B, Email Address, enter the person's Virginia Tech email address. 
   3. Make sure every person is assigned a breakout room in column A.
   4. Make sure the breakout room names are spelled the same way for the same room. 
   5. Make sure email addresses are spelled correctly. 
6. Save as CSV. 
7. Go back to the Zoom Import from CSV window and drag and drop your CSV file. 
8. Inspect and edit the breakout rooms. 
9. Click Save.
10. Back in Meeting Settings, click Save. 

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Managing Breakout Rooms

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Joining a Breakout Room

1. Once the meeting host invites you to join a breakout room, click Join.
   
2. If you choose to join the breakout session later, you can join by clicking Breakout Rooms on the bottom menu bar in your meeting, then Join Breakout Room.

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Participating in a Breakout Room

Once you have joined a breakout room, you can click:

• Mute/Unmute - to control your microphone.
• Start/Stop Video - to control your camera.
• Participants - to view the list of participants in your room.
• Chat - to type messages to the other participants in your room.
• Reactions - to add an emoji to your screen or raise your hand.
• Share - to share your screen.
• Record - to record the session if the host gives you recording permission.
• Captions - to turn on captioning.
• Ask for Help - to request help from the meeting host.

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Asking for Help

Asking for help will ask the meeting host and co-hosts to join your breakout room.

1. From a Breakout Room's bottom menu, click More, then Ask for Help.
   
2. Confirm that you would like assistance by clicking Invite host.
   
3. The meeting host will be prompted to join that room by clicking Join breakout room.

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Leaving a Breakout Room

• You can leave a breakout room and return to the main meeting at any time.
• You can also leave the meeting entirely from your breakout room.
• When the host ends the breakout rooms manually, you will be notified and given the option to return to the main meeting immediately or in 60 seconds.

1. In the right corner of the bottom menu, click Leave Room.
2. Choose if you want to leave the breakout room or the entire meeting by clicking Leave breakout room or Leave Meeting.
   

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Getting Help

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