Create Breakout Rooms
On This Page:
Create Breakout Rooms During a Meeting
Pre-assign Breakout Rooms via Brightspace
For complete information and instructions related to the breakout room feature, visit Zoom's Managing Breakout Rooms (opens in a new tab) support page.
Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 100 separate sessions. The meeting host or co-host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these smaller groups automatically or manually, or they can allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions as they please. Breakout room participants have full audio, video and screen share capabilities. The host or co-host can switch between sessions at any time, and monitor the level of activity in each room. You can also pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when you schedule your meeting instead of doing it live during the meeting.
Limitations
- The host and co-host can both do the following:
- Assign, start, and end breakout rooms
- Move between breakout rooms
- Broadcast message to all breakout rooms
- View activity statuses of participants
- Only hosts get notified of Requests for Help.
- Users joined into a Zoom meeting from the Zoom Mobile App can participate in breakout rooms, but cannot manage them.
- If the meeting is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main meeting and none of the breakouts will be captured, regardless of what room the meeting host is in. It is currently only possible to record in breakout rooms with local recording. The host must allow specific participants to record locally and it will only record the room the participant who is recording is in. Multiple participants can be given permission to record locally.
- You can create up to 100 breakout rooms. The maximum number of participants in a single breakout room depends on the meeting capacity, number of breakout rooms created, and if participants are assigned during the meeting or before the meeting.
- The following numbers only apply to breakout rooms created during a meeting. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms with up to 1000 participants can be pre-assigned to breakout rooms.
- 20 breakout rooms - Up to 500 participants assigned per room
- 30 breakout rooms - Up to 400 participants assigned per room
- 50 breakout rooms - Up to 200 participants assigned per room
Create Breakout Rooms During a Meeting
Step 1
Start an instant or scheduled meeting as the host.
Step 2
Select the Breakout Rooms icon in the meeting toolbar.
Step 3
Select the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
- Assign automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms.
- Include co-host(s) to breakout rooms: Disable by default, you can include any co-host(s) in the automatic assignment of breakout rooms.
- Assign manually: Choose yourself which participants you would like in each room.
- Let participants choose room: Participants can select and enter rooms on their own.
Step 4
Select Create.
Note
Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically. You can learn how to manage the rooms prior to starting them by viewing the following Zoom support pages:
- Options for Breakout Rooms (opens in a new tab)
- Assign Participants to Rooms (opens in a new tab)
- Prepare Breakout Rooms (opens in a new tab)
You can also learn how to manage breakout rooms that are in progress by viewing the following Zoom support pages:
- Manage Breakout Rooms in Progress (opens in a new tab)
- Save Current Breakout Room Assignments for Future Use (opens in a new tab)
- Respond to Requests for Help (opens in a new tab)
- Share your Screen to All Breakout Rooms (opens in a new tab)
- View Activity Statuses of Participants in Breakout Rooms (opens in a new tab)
Pre-assign Breakout Rooms via Brightspace
As a meeting host, you can pre-arrange your meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting. This can be useful if you already know how you want to group your participants.
Limitations
- You can pre-assign up to 100 rooms and up to 1000 participants.
- Only one set of pre-assignments can be configured for a meeting. These assignments can be adjusted and changed, but it is not possible to store multiple sets of pre-assignments for one meeting or meeting series.
- You can only pre-assign participants that have a Zoom account (university or non-university Zoom users).
- To pre-assign participants that are non-university Zoom users, import a CSV file (opens in a new tab).
- If you scheduled recurring meetings, the pre-assigned breakout rooms will only work if it's applied to all meetings in the recurrence. You can't edit a single meeting in the recurrence and apply a unique pre-assignment.
Step 1
Within a web browser, access Zoom via your Brightspace course. Instructions for doing so can be viewed at Access Zoom via Brightspace.
Step 2
Select Schedule a New Meeting.
Step 3
In the Meeting Options section, select the Breakout Room pre-assign checkbox, then select Create Rooms. A Breakout Room Assignment window will appear.
Step 4
In the window, to the right of Rooms, select the plus (+) button to add breakout rooms.
Step 5
(Optional) In the right panel, select the pencil (edit) button to rename the breakout room. This button will appear when you hover your mouse over the breakout room name.
Step 6
Select the Add participants text box, and your Brightspace course roster should appear so you can select a student's name to add to the breakout room. Once you have added a name it will disappear from the pop-up list. Repeat until all of your students have been placed in the rooms you desire. Alternatively you can search for internal participants by name or email address, or manually enter the email address of external users. Press Enter to add them to the breakout room.
Step 7
(Optional) Use these options to edit your breakout rooms and participants:
- Select and drag a participant's email address to change the order.
- Select or hover your mouse over a participant's name to see options to move them to another room or remove them from the current room.
- To delete a breakout room, select or hover your mouse over the room name in the left panel and select the trash icon.
Step 8
Select Save.
Pre-assign Breakout Rooms via Web Portal
As a meeting host, you can pre-arrange your meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting. This can be useful if you already know how you want to group your participants.
Limitations
- You can pre-assign up to 100 rooms and up to 1000 participants.
- Only one set of pre-assignments can be configured for a meeting. These assignments can be adjusted and changed, but it is not possible to store multiple sets of pre-assignments for one meeting or meeting series.
- You can only pre-assign participants that have a Zoom account (university or non-university Zoom users).
- To pre-assign participants that are non-university Zoom users, import a CSV file (opens in a new tab).
- If you scheduled recurring meetings, the pre-assigned breakout rooms will only work if it's applied to all meetings in the recurrence. You can't edit a single meeting in the recurrence and apply a unique pre-assignment.
Step 1
Within a web browser, navigate to and sign in to the University Zoom Web Portal. Instructions for doing so can be viewed at Access University Zoom Web Portal.
Step 2
Select Meetings within the navigation menu.
Step 3
Select Schedule a Meeting.
Step 4
In the Options section, select the Breakout Room pre-assign checkbox, then select Create Rooms. A Breakout Room Assignment window will appear.
Step 5
In the window, to the right of Rooms, select the plus (+) button to add breakout rooms.
Step 6
(Optional) In the right panel, select the pencil (edit) button to rename the breakout room. This button will appear when you hover your mouse over the breakout room name.
Step 7
In the Add participants text box, search for internal participants by name or email address and select the appropriate name that appears in search results, or manually enter the email address of external users, and then press Enter to add them to the breakout room.
Step 8
(Optional) Use these options to edit your breakout rooms and participants:
- Select and drag a participant's email address to change the order.
- Select or hover your mouse over a participant's name to see options to move them to another room or remove them from the current room.
- To delete a breakout room, select or hover your mouse over the room name in the left panel and select the trash icon.
Step 9
Select Save.
Start a Meeting with Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms
It is extremely important that the participants join your meeting with their Zoom account, otherwise they won't get properly put in the room they were assigned. Zoom looks for the email address that was used for pre-assign. If the participant isn't signed in to Zoom with that email address Zoom will not place them in the assigned room because it doesn't see the appropriate email address. Participants can follow the Sign in to Zoom help page for proper sign in instructions.
Step 1
As the host, start the meeting with participants pre-assigned to breakout rooms.
Step 2
Select the Breakout Rooms icon in the meeting toolbar to access the breakout rooms you created.
Note
- If a participant is not automatically assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting (maybe because they joined the meeting late), recover to pre-assigned breakout rooms (opens in a new tab) to re-assign participants to their pre-assigned breakout rooms. But remember, the reason they don't get assigned could also be because they are not signed in to the meeting with their Zoom account.
- You can manually assign participants using the in-meeting breakout room controls (opens in a new tab).
Step 3
Select Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.