Zoom Self Select Breakout Rooms

[@LongTimeTTFan]

Thank you, Ben for demonstrating this feature from both the Host and the Participant's perspective. Very well done. You are keeping abreast with the new version updates. Very much appreciated.

[@DangoKat]

Thank you! We had a tough time trying to figure how it would look from students' portal😊

[@justaskwhatif]

thank you! but i still kinda have a problem, i still can't join breakout room. first it seems like i'm being transferred to the breakout room i chose but at the end i'm still in the main room, do you know what can my teachers and i do? we are really confused.

[@justaskwhatif]

by the way the problem is only for few participants can join the exact breakout room and the others can't

[@BenFinio]

@@justaskwhatif Hmm - I would suggest telling everyone to make sure they update to the latest version of Zoom. There have been some changes to how breakout rooms work and I'm not sure if people will have trouble if they have an older version.

[@reginawalters943]

Thank you! Good information for professional development sessions.

[@sarahflood6288]

Hi Ben, thanks for your video. Do you know if the Zoom participants also need to have the newest Zoom version in order for them to see the self-select button? Or am I as the meeting host the only person who needs the Zoom 5.3? Thanks!

[@BenFinio]

Hi Sarah - from what I've heard, in order for this feature to work for each individual participant they will need to update. However, if one person isn't updated, that won't stop you as the host (assuming you've updated) from doing it for the whole meeting. But that one person will be unable to join a room on their own, you'll need to assign them.

[@byronlunz]

Great work! Exactly what I needed for a big conference we have in October!

[@luisananos6847]

Thank you for the demo video. I'm wondering if there is a way to limit the number of participants that enter the self-selected breakout rooms. Would the room "close" once the limit is reached, so a participant would have to choose a different room?

[@BenFinio]

Hi Luisa - to the best of my knowledge, no, you can't place a cap on the individual breakout rooms. This means that theoretically, everyone in the meeting could just join a single room. Sounds like this would be a good feature for them to add in the future.

[@dpaserma]

This is very useful, thank you. Do you also have a version where the students use a Mac? I think that the look on Macs is less intuitive: instead of seeing"Join" in bold letters, you see the number of participants in the room, and you have to click on that number to join a room. A lot of people get stuck without understanding what they need to do to join a room.

[@BenFinio]

Hi - unfortunately, except for a couple iPad tutorials, all my videos are for PC. I don't have a Mac. Sorry!

[@dpaserma]

@@BenFinio No problem, thanks for your reply.

[@filmprofessorstallings]

Thanks for the helpful video. If I want the self-select feature, is it just the host who needs to have version 5.3 or all participants? Thank you!

[@BenFinio]

It will only work for people who have the update. So if there are people in the meeting who haven't updated, you will have to assign them to the breakout rooms manually.

[@pabloramirezpaez7306]

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[@TSueWhereareu]

Thank you! Concise and comprehensive

[@miniscootie]

Thank you, but I can't find the self-select button. I have only 2 options (automatically and manually)

[@BenFinio]

Are you the meeting host? If so, when is the last time you updated Zoom?

[@sharonvigil9556]

Hi! Once I call back all students can I do a second round of self select to a new zoom breakout room.

[@BenFinio]

Hi Sharon - yes, there should be an option to reset/reform the rooms (if you click the breakout rooms button I think it's an option in the lower left of the window that pops up).

[@aliciar1227]

Thanks! I wanted to know what participants see when they can choose their own room! Perfect!

[@grassleychen2938]

i never get those 4 boxes things when my teacher let's us pick rooms :/

[@murtazakamalpashakhan7874]

Awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@cfgreateratlanta]

This was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[@paolosalazar9919]

thank you!!

[@JanineMKartist]

I have a question I hope you can help me with. Today I did resource support in class. The teacher made me co-host but two issues I had... one is while I was in the breakout room I did not have the security shield drop down menu option. The other is another teacher as host said her menu bar had a more button which I did not have . I needed to be able to make a student co host in order to do guided reading using the teacher’s raz kids account which I don’t have access to as a substitute . The child had access though so she needed to be able to share her screen with me in order for the guided reading . She had to go back to the main room to ask the teacher to make her a co-host because I couldn’t find any option to do so. Can you tell me what I need to do in future to make that work and why I didn’t have the more option on my tool bar as co-host. As a substitute teacher I will essentially be made co host even when covering a whole class. Also the teacher had to send me the invite to join breakout room I couldn’t go in myself as cohost .

[@BenFinio]

Hi: 1 - if you couldn't join the breakout room yourself, then you need to update to the latest version of Zoom 2 - the teacher should be able to assign an "alternative host" when scheduling a meeting, which will allow you to start the meeting and be the host instead of a co host - this should give you all the privileges as a host when you need to sub and there's no other teacher (I'm not 100% sure if that's what you meant) 3 - unfortunately I have not thoroughly tested all the differences between host and co-host controls, e.g. I am not sure if a co-host can promote other people to co-host or if only the host can do that. 4 - you'd have to ask the host what options appeared under the "more" button that you do not have. i think sometimes this button may just be related to the size of your screen and how many buttons it can fit on there at once. 5 - I am not sure about the security button disappearing in breakout rooms, I have not tested that Sorry I couldn't answer all of your questions!

[@JanineMKartist]

@@BenFinio thanks. Things to consider. The zoom application is within the school board system along with all google applications when I log into my work account. I have the app as Well on my hard drive but I don’t think that’s what’s used when I’m in via my work account.

[@BenFinio]

@@JanineMKartist Hmm, I'm not sure then, do you have an IT department/person you can ask?

[@JanineMKartist]

@@BenFinio I think you nailed it with needed to be made alternate host. I’ll just make sure teachers do that. What makes no sense to me is why some teachers opt for google meet instead. I have to learn that too.

[@deleneymagoffin]

Does a participant have to have version 5.3 to also see this updated option to choose their own breakout room?

[@BenFinio]

yes, in order to choose their own breakout rooms the participants need to update, not just the host

[@melissamurphy9956]

Thank you so much for this video!! I second the comment below - showing from the student perspective is the only way for students to understand how to do this.

[@BenFinio]

You're welcome! If you haven't seen them yet, I have a ton of other tutorials - some of them are more aimed at teachers but many also show things from the student/participant view: kzbin.info/aero/PLKL6KBeCnI3UQTL_YQBJ6xwjSnLjKMq5K

[@rayamoooooo685]

Ok

[@Advieskunst]

Thanks from Holland!

[@IEMTPractitioner]

Hi Ben Thank you for all your videos they have been really helpful. I am currently using Zoom and I broadcast onto my Facebook group. What I want to do is schedule a broadcast in my group (so people can get reminders) and then start zoom and connect to the this particular scheduled FB live, rather than just starting a general broadcast. Do you have any advice or tips on how to do this? Also please let me know if this doesn't make sense.

[@BenFinio]

Hi - unfortunately I have zero experience using Facebook Live so I can't really provide any advice. Sorry I can't be of more help!

[@IEMTPractitioner]

@@BenFinio Thank you anyway. Please keep making these great videos!

[@BenFinio]

@@IEMTPractitioner Thanks!

[@MrBrune-je7rf]

Thank you for these videos! Question: I would like to be able to point out things on a student's shared screen instead of TELLING them to go to certain places on their shared screen. For example, where\how to navigate a website or program. The only way I see that this can be done is to have the student enable annotation on their zoom toolbar. Then I like to annotate the screen using the arrow button which stamps an arrow with my name near where I want them to go or to the place I am referring to. Every time I stamp an arrow, the previous arrow disappears. Other students can also stamp arrows if needed. Is this the best way you know of? I have also found students using chromebooks do not have the "enable annotation" option on their toolbar when sharing their screen, so I am trying to figure out if these is another way for me to annotate their screens.

[@BenFinio]

Hi Mr. Brune - I'm not entirely sure if this would do what you want, but coincidentally I just made a new video about the remote control feature in Zoom. This would allow you to just temporarily control the student's screen to do it for them: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5qzhYaHhLydrMU. If that isn't what you want - I'm looking at the annotation controls now and I think you could also use the "spotlight" button - this confusingly has nothing to do with the "spotlight video" feature, but it gives you a laser pointer similar to the pointer in Powerpoint. It looks like if you click on that button there is also an "arrow" option. So that would allow you to point at things on their screen without having to use the "stamp" feature. Unfortunately I'm not sure about the specific limitations of Chromebooks. For me there are some settings about annotations when I go to zoom.us in a web browser, maybe your school has to enable it for them at the admin level?

[@MrBrune-je7rf]

@@BenFinio appreciate the response. The arrow is what I use now. (It stamps an arrow.) The chromebook limitation was what is really holding us back. Oh, well!

[@BenFinio]

@@MrBrune-je7rf To clarify it looks like there are two different arrows. One does a stamp, the other is just a pointer. The Chromebook app might not have all the same functionality as the Windows/Mac program though, which wouldn't surprise me. One other suggestion is to send Zoom feedback or try getting their attention on social media. I have managed to get them to reply to a few things on Twitter and LinkedIn, and it seems like they have been adding features that lots of teachers have been requesting.

[@jenniferolesen5621]

Thank you, Ben I am a teacher and tried this today. Some students found a way to choose their room others were not able to find a way to join a breakout room. They do not see breakout rooms on their zoom toolbar and it is not showing up in the participation feature either. Any ideas on how to problem-solve this? I want the same groups to meet for an entire unit and it takes too much time to manually add them into the breakout rooms. I have also tried pre assigning with email addresses and it works for about a third of the class.

[@BenFinio]

Hi Jennifer - I would tell students who don't see the feature to make sure they update to the latest version of Zoom. Do that by opening the Zoom desktop app, clicking their profile picture/initials in the top right, and selecting Check for updates. The self select feature won't be available if they are running an old version. Also, are any of them using a tablet or phone instead of a computer? If so, the menu and controls are different. Finally, I have never tried pre-assigned breakout rooms, but unfortunately I have also heard of people having mixed results and sometimes it doesn't work. I believe you need to make sure everyone is logged in to Zoom with the correct email address that you used for preassigning. This could be a problem for example on a shared family computer where people switch Zoom accounts frequently.

[@asimaliphd]

We tried this feature with a about 200 attendees and only and handful of participants could see the button. I'm on version 5.5.1 updated just now on a Mac and never have a breakout button unless I'm host or co-host.

[@BenFinio]

@@asimaliphd if you're updated but don't see the button, I think that means the host does not have self-select breakout rooms enabled. Just because you've updated doesn't mean you'll always be able to pick which room to join, the host can still choose whether to assign people to rooms.

[@randymills4294]

This is GREAT! Is there a way to create breakout rooms for back to back sessions? For example, Session 1 has three breakout rooms. After 30 minutes, session II begins with those same breakout rooms so students can rotate to a different 30-min session?

[@BenFinio]

Hi Randy - I am not entirely sure what you mean by "session" - you mean with the same Zoom meeting? If so, you can redo the breakout rooms at any time you want, but I don't think for example it's possible to set up multiple sessions of manually pre-assigned breakout rooms in advance, you can only do one at a time. But just because you create breakout rooms once does not mean they have to be fixed for the whole meeting.

[@randymills4294]

@@BenFinio Thank you so much for the reply, Ben. We are hosting a program for our students and families, during which the first 45 minutes will be a Q&A, followed by three "sessions" that will be breakout rooms for the families to self-select. After 25 min., we will offer these three sessions again, so families can choose a second session or breakout room to go to. I think you answered my question, which was whether I will be able to set up the second round of breakout rooms in advance or if I am only permitted to set up session one with three breakouts and once that session ends, I'll need to recreate the next session... if I am understanding your response correctly. Many thanks again!

[@BenFinio]

@@randymills4294 if that's the case I don't think you really need to do anything extra. Assuming you have rooms A, B, and C open for three different topics, and after 25 minutes you want to let people rotate to different rooms, you just need to announce "OK, now everyone pick a different room" and they can move between them. You don't need to close or recreate the original rooms.

[@randymills4294]

@@BenFinio Brilliant! Even better. You have been a great help and I very much appreciate your insights. Thanks, Ben!

[@yomekii]

ok