Zoom has a robust breakout rooms feature for small group collaboration. You can reuse the same rooms throughout the session or create new rooms as needed.
Creating Breakout Rooms
- As a host or co-host of a Zoom meeting, click Breakout rooms from the Zoom navigation bar.
- NOTE: Depending on screen size, you may need to select More to access the breakout rooms.
- Determine the number of breakout rooms you want to create by selecting the room number option. You have three options to select:
- Assign automatically: participants are assigned to rooms randomly.
- Assign manually: the host or co-host will assign participants to a room.
- Let participants choose room: participants self-select a room to join.
- Once participant assignments are selected, click Create.
Breakout Rooms Options
To review breakout rooms settings, click the Options button (gear icon 
on Mac or browser) after you create rooms and before you click Open all rooms.
The following are options you may select to use during the breakout rooms:
- Allow participants to choose room: This works well when they know which group to use and you are using the same groups across multiple sessions. You can make corresponding Canvas groups, which appear on the student’s home page of your course. If participants are using a web browser instead of the Zoom client, they may not be able to join a room, but you can manually move students with access difficulties.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time: This works well for one student to enter the main room with questions and then return to their group. Participants can also request help from within the breakout room.
- Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms: Moves participants into the breakout rooms, so they do not need to click a Join button.
- Automatically move all selected participants in the breakout rooms to the main session: Moves participants from their breakout rooms back to the main session after the rooms are closed.
- Breakout rooms close automatically after: You may choose if the breakout rooms will close after a specific length of time, and can choose the time in minutes. Participants and the host can see a timer.
- Notifies the host before closing the room. You can choose to click Close now or Keep breakout rooms open.
- Countdown after closing breakout room: Provides a brief time before rooms close. Participants can stay in the room until the end of the time or return to the main room right away. You can choose to set the countdown timer in seconds.
When your breakout rooms are complete, click Close all rooms to bring all participants back together.
Breakout Rooms Features
While participants are in breakout rooms, the host or co-host can manage the following from the breakout room menu:
- Plan next section: Create new breakout rooms for the next small-group session ahead of time.
- Broadcast: Send a message out to all groups that will appear on their screen. This can be a typed message, or you can speak to broadcast your voice into all rooms.
- Add room: If additional participants join, you can create additional breakout rooms.
Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms
You are able to create pre-assigned breakout rooms utilizing existing Canvas groups in your Zoom meeting when created in a Canvas course. However, participants in Zoom must be logged into Zoom in addition to Canvas in order for the pre-assigned rooms to work. If a student is not logged in, the host or co-host would need to move each participant to their assigned room.