Zoom Breakout Room Tips

[@JanineMKartist]

I love your students featured here. Lol

[@EJX220]

Super helpful! Went much deeper than other tutorial videos I've seen (including the official Zoom one)

[@BenFinio]

Thank you, glad it was helpful!

[@neonpotatoe79]

Hii, I wanna ask if people in the main room sees the messages that we send to “everyone” in the breakout room. Does the “everyone” in breakout room mean everyone in the whole meeting or just everyone in the breakout room

[@BenFinio]

Each breakout room has its own chat, so the messages don't go to people in other rooms.

[@raseovful]

Great tutorial!!! I like the humor with the characters too

[@firetruckmonster1485]

This was very helpful, thank you! Is there a way to share the screen with all the breakout rooms you've got? I tried it, but it disappears once I move to a different room.

[@BenFinio]

To the best of my knowledge each breakout room has its own screen sharing, there's no way to share a screen from the main room to all the breakout rooms at once. To get around this problem I have heard of people distributing a document in advance so people can look at it on their own computers.

[@firetruckmonster1485]

@@BenFinio Thank you!

[@jenniferlindes9007]

great videos. thank you

[@francysolartesoto495]

Thanks! I like your videos :)

[@sophiaaaaaaaa..a]

Hi Ben, thank you for the tutorial, can you do one to show how to do this on iPad please, thanks.

[@BenFinio]

Hi Sophia - I do have an iPad tutorial but it does not specifically show breakout rooms, does this answer any questions you had? kzbin.info/www/bejne/gX2Wl3SsorB2g9E

[@BenFinio]

@Maryann Walker people who don't have the option need to update to the latest version of Zoom.

[@jenniferlindes9007]

any idea as to why my main room keeps disappearing on me when I am in a break out gropu (as the host) ?

[@BenFinio]

Hi Jennifer - I'm not clear what you mean about the main room disappearing. You should be able to leave the breakout room at any time to go back to the main room, but you can't be in both at once.

[@avyannasingh4905]

It's a great video - thank you. But every time, I want to move someone to a breakout room manually; it send the attendee a notification on their screen first which they have to click "ok" to first before they can enter the breakout room. How do I remove this option to ensure they don't get this notification on their screen? I have looked at all settings and I can't find one. I have a pro plan. Thanks in advance

[@BenFinio]

Hi - here's how I get to the option: click the breakout room button in the bottom toolbar -> choose "assign manually" -> click "Create" -> click "Options" in the bottom left of the window that comes up -> there is a checkbox for "Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms." I assume if that box is checked then it will move them automatically and they won't get the notification.

[@avyannasingh4905]

@@BenFinio thanks for getting back Ben. Auto move is not an option for me unfortunately. My work requires my students to be moved only manually when required. Is there no option to move manually and remove the notification option? I used to be abel to do that funny enough when i had the free plan but not anymore after buying the pro plan??!! Thats's weird. You would think that it works the opposite way.

[@feiyingliu8612]

Everything is so well explained! Thank you very much！

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome!

[@marijazeljkovic1627]

Can one student in a separate room share his screen with other participants?

[@BenFinio]

No, screen sharing only works within each breakout room.

[@vietle6970]

Love your videos! Characters helping out are great :)

[@BenFinio]

Thanks!

[@vasilisa22]

Thank you very much I have seen the prices I do not understand, it seems it cots a fortune (ZOOM / plan and pricing section on zoom website) Do I need to pay pay monthly or annually per webinars plus if I want to put my clients into breakout rooms, for example, 3 rooms it will cost me monthly 50 eur per each breakup room For example. the price for webinars up to 100 people is 37 eur per month, I thought this price includes as many breakup rooms for my clients as I assign, Usually up to 4 breakup rooms. Then I saw that (ZOOM / plan and pricing section on zoom website) )there are Zoom Rooms ( I do not understand what they mean by zoom rooms - I understood these are breaup rooms ) and each room costs 50 eur per month, What is this feature if you know please? I just want to host up to 8 seminars/ classes per week, with each class duration 60 minutes. In each class participation up to 8 people. I want them to work in pairs during the class so would need to put them in break-up rooms. I am confused please help Thank you very much in advance How much do I need to pay if I want to use ZOOM they way I have just explained. Many thanks!

[@BenFinio]

Hi vasilisa22 - based on my understanding of what you wrote, if you want to teach 60 minute classes with up to 8 people in each, you should be fine with a regular Zoom "pro" plan. That allows you to host unlimited meetings with no time limit of up to 100 participants, and will include breakout rooms if you wanted to break into smaller group discussions. You should not need to worry about webinars, those are for much larger classes with hundreds of people, and honestly I am not sure what Zoom Rooms are, but whatever they are you shouldn't need them. I'm not sure about euro pricing but in the US a pro account is currently $150/year.

[@JohnEperjesi]

Very helpful!

[@dana6700]

How to disable chat in breakout rooms? The security settings only available in main room, i can't find it when joining in breakout room

[@BenFinio]

Hi Diana - I'm not sure about this one, I assumed if you had chat disabled for the whole meeting, that setting could carry over to the breakout rooms. Is that not the case?

[@dana6700]

@@BenFinio yes, the chat is disabled for the meeting, but when i open the breakout rooms, the participants still can chat to everyone or privately in each room. Perhaps you should try it then please tell me the result. Just to make sure whether the problem is only mine or everyone experienced it too. Fyi my account is pro account Thanks in advance

[@BenFinio]

@@dana6700 Hi Dana - unfortunately I will not have time to test this myself, I have had to take some time off from Zoom tutorials to work on other things. If you have multiple computers or some family/friends who can log in, you should be able to test it yourself though.

[@dana6700]

@@BenFinio good idea thanks

[@MrWinstonSmith]

Good job.

[@edithdee1534]

thank you for your tutorial. Can you help me by showing us how to make a breakout room by using IPAD since I got difficulty putting someone into a breakout room? . THank you

[@BenFinio]

Hi Edith - I have gotten a couple requests for this, I will add it to my list of videos to make but can't promise how soon I will get to it.

[@meganroads2235]

After watching some tutorials that are a bit mind-numbing this definitely gave me a good smile, thank you!

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome! If you haven't seen them already, there are many more where this came from: kzbin.info/aero/PLKL6KBeCnI3UQTL_YQBJ6xwjSnLjKMq5K

[@danielterwilliger9880]

Question: Can the participants meet directly in their breakout rooms and not start in the main zoom meeting. If i did not want participants to see each other until after the breakout room sessions are finished. Is this possible?

[@BenFinio]

Hi Daniel - there is an option for preassigned breakout rooms when creating a meeting, but I have not tried it. However, I am not sure if people would be sent into the breakout rooms immediately upon joining the meeting, or if they would come in to the main room first and then you'd need to send them into the breakout rooms.

[@patttauzerpavao6829]

Is it possible to appoint a spokesperson/leader in a break out room if members have been automatically sorted or does that have to be done manually?

[@BenFinio]

What do you mean by "spokeperson/leader"? That isn't really an official role in Zoom, but you can assign people as co-hosts. They would then have the same privileges as the host regarding breakout rooms and moving between rooms etc.

[@patttauzerpavao6829]

@@BenFinio Thanks for your help. We wanted to break our group of 40-50 into 5 or so break out groups and we wanted to do it automatically. But we were hoping to designate one person in each group as a leader or spokesperson to report back when we reconvene as a whole group. Is there any way for us to do that or do we need to leave that up to the group itself? PTP

[@BenFinio]

@@patttauzerpavao6829 There's no way to do that automatically in Zoom, you would either need to assign people in advance or leave it up to the groups. I have heard of little icebreaker type games you can use to have groups pick the spokesperson if you think people will be shy about it (person who is currently closest to a waterfall, person who ate ice cream most recently, that sort of thing).

[@patttauzerpavao6829]

@@BenFinio Thanks so much. We will go with that. I appreciate your very helpful videos and your rapid response. P.

[@BenFinio]

@@patttauzerpavao6829 Thanks!

[@edfeldstein]

Once people have been assigned to breakout rooms, how do you put someone who comes late into a breakout room?

[@BenFinio]

Click the breakout rooms button again and you should be able to manually add people to the rooms.

[@roverdover4449]

Yours is the only tutorial that shows what it actually looks like when doing it. Everyone else "talks about" it. You actually do it. Thank you!

[@BenFinio]

Glad it was helpful! I have many more tutorials that are the same style (detailed recordings that actually "show" everything), in case you haven't seen those already: kzbin.info/aero/PLKL6KBeCnI3UQTL_YQBJ6xwjSnLjKMq5K

[@yesycastillo321]

Thank you for sharing. Question: What if during breakout room, a student loses connectivity and gets kicked out? How can I admit him to original meeting? Is there a way to see all participants list to admit again?

[@BenFinio]

Hi Yesy - do you mean if a student just gets kicked out of the breakout room somehow, or if they get completely kicked out of the entire meeting? The student should be able to re-join the meeting by clicking the same link they used to join initially. Then you should be able to click the Breakout Rooms button and manually assign the student to a room.

[@delavallade2]

Great video! Can there be 10 different breakout sessions in succession? like a school day..students going to 10 different classes on a schedule

[@BenFinio]

Hi Penelope - I'm not entirely sure what you're asking - if you only need one room at a time, there is really no reason to use breakout rooms, you would just keep everyone in the main meeting. Breakout rooms are for when you need to break out into multiple smaller rooms at once. But yes, you can start/stop/reorganize breakout rooms throughout the meeting, so you can do multiple breakout rooms back to back over the course of a longer meeting.

[@kennethfunes8331]

zoom oh wowo

[@julie4013]

Thank you - your tutorials are the best I've found! The ability to see it in action from the students' view was exactly what I needed, and I appreciated the proactive tips and warnings. Question: I teach English and students will use the breakout rooms to meet with their writers' groups. Students are in the same groups all semester. Can I save the breakout room participant assignments so I don't have to do it at the start of every meeting?

[@BenFinio]

Hi - I don't have a video about it, but you can preassign breakout rooms in Zoom, and it looks like they can apply to recurring meetings: support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360032752671-Pre-assigning-participants-to-breakout-rooms. However, I have heard mixed results from people who have tried this. I believe it relies on students being logged in to the correct Zoom account that you need to assign the rooms. So for example if they're sharing a family computer and people are switching accounts, or they forget to log in, then it won't work. So it can be worth a shot but I'd be prepared to still need to manually assign students to some rooms.

[@julie4013]

@@BenFinio Thanks for your response. It confirmed what I was already thinking - that it might cause new issues in the login department. Right now, knowing students are switching accounts on shared computers, I try to make it as easy as possible to log in to our Zoom meetings. I think I'll try letting the students join the breakout sessions themselves once the breakout rooms are established. Give each writers' group a consistent number. Then I hope it will end up as easy as when I tell them to meet with their writers' groups in the face-to-face environment, and they just go do it themselves. We just got put on virtual for 6 more weeks, so we'll be giving it a try Monday. Thanks for your very helpful advice!

[@BenFinio]

@@julie4013 Yes, if your students are old enough to handle self-select breakout rooms, that approach may be easier. In case you haven't seen it already, I have a video about that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWbWanSEadOnbNk

[@toastfishguy]

Hi Ben, thanks for the tutorial. The "Move all participants into breakout rooms automatically" option for me doesn't work for some of my participants (they still have to click join). Do you know if this is because they need to update their Zoom or something? Is there something else I as the host can do to force them to go to their breakout room right away?

[@BenFinio]

Hi - not sure, I haven't heard of this problem. With the recent updates to breakout rooms (kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWbWanSEadOnbNk) I'm not sure if there are compatibility problems for people with different versions. My only other thought is if they're co-hosts then maybe it won't send them automatically?

[@toastfishguy]

@@BenFinio Ok. That link gives me 404 error fyi. Also, for me it still works for my usual co-host: he's forced to the breakout room. I appreciate the reply.

[@apbiofunwithdr.d.29]

CAn you prevent Ss from leaving a breakout room and returning to main room before their allotted break out room time is over?

[@BenFinio]

When you set up the breakout rooms I believe there is a checkbox for "allow participants to return to main room before breakout rooms are closed" (or something like that), so you'd need to uncheck that box.

[@sush2142]

Amazing video. Thanks a lot.

[@stefaniagioia5956]

Thank you soooo much!! This is really helpful :)

[@VictorRodriguez-uy2hc]

Hey ben how can i record the breakout rooms????

[@BenFinio]

Hi Victor - this is complicated and I don't have a video about it. From what I remember, only the breakout room the host is in will be recorded, you can't record all of them in parallel - but I have not tested this extensively, so don't quote me on that.

[@joyflg1rl]

That was really helpful! Thank you!

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome!

[@DC-qv6gq]

Awesome!!

[@dangcao6823]

Thank you so much for the tutorial.

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome!

[@sulisrubi9420]

very useful thanks Ben

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome!

[@dfccmd]

Ben, is there any way to spotlight the main session’s speaker in the breakout rooms?

[@BenFinio]

Hi David - not that I'm aware of. People in breakout rooms can only see/hear each other. It seems like this would be a nice feature, e.g. to allow small group discussion of the slides or speaker from the main session.

[@dfccmd]

@@BenFinio Thanks for the reply. Yes, I think it would be a great addition. Thanks for this series. I'm going to recommend it to my students and my choral groups who are rehearsing using Zoom.

[@BenFinio]

@@dfccmd Appreciate it! You aren't the first person I've heard with this request. It's a pain for us when a professor presents a problem and then wants students to work on it in breakout groups - we have to make sure they have all copied it down first, or we have to distribute a file in advance, since they lose the screen share when they go into breakout rooms.

[@dfccmd]

@@BenFinio It would also be useful for online fundraisers where you want to have someone presenting music or speaking in the main session but you want donors to be together and chatting a bit in the breakout rooms - it simulates the real world. :^)

[@BenFinio]

@@dfccmd Yep. I have managed to get Zoom's attention on Twitter/LinkedIn with one of these videos and they also have a feedback form on their website - can't hurt to try and let them know about it! I know a lot of the other recent updates that I've posted videos about (e.g. rearranging gallery view, multi-pin and multi-spotlight) are features teachers were asking for.