[Zoom] Explanation of how to set up the breakout room function

With Zoom, you can hold meetings smoothly by combining various functions such as chat and whiteboard as well as simple video calls.

Among such many functions, the “breakout room function” is convenient but not well known.

With Zoom’s breakout room feature, you can divide your meeting participants into smaller groups for discussion.

Here, we explain what you can do with Zoom’s breakout room function and how to actually use it.

We also introduce useful optional functions of the breakout room function, so if you are thinking about group work using Zoom, please refer to it.

What is Zoom’s breakout room (breakout session) feature?

The breakout room (breakout session) function is a function that divides users participating in a meeting on Zoom into small groups.

First, let’s take a closer look at what you can do with Zoom’s breakout rooms feature and the scope of licenses available.

What you can do with the breakout room feature

The features of Zoom’s breakout room function are as follows.

• Users in a meeting can be sorted into up to 50 groups
• Assign up to 200 participants to one group
• Participants have access to audio, video and screen sharing capabilities
• Only the host can freely enter and exit the room of each group

By using Zoom’s breakout room function, you can easily conduct discussions for each team.

It is very convenient because you don’t have to leave the room and start a new meeting for each group.

Also, unless the host sets it in advance, no one other than the host can enter or leave other groups, so you don’t have to worry about other groups listening to your conversations.

By dividing into small groups, participants will be able to actively express their opinions, which can be expected to have the effect of revitalizing the conference or seminar itself.

Is it available in the free version of Zoom?

The breakout room feature is actually available in the free version of Zoom.

However, the free version of Zoom is limited to 40 minutes even for meetings with two participants, which may be a little unsatisfactory for business use.

Also, if you want to operate a breakout room with a scale of more than 100 people, the large meeting add-on that expands the number of participants in the entire meeting is a function limited to users with paid Zoom licenses.

The paid version of Zoom is recommended if you want to use the breakout room function for business, as functions such as multiple co-host settings that are useful for group work are only available in the paid version.

How to set up and use breakout rooms

The Breakout Rooms feature works differently if you pre-assign before the meeting starts and if you assign during the meeting.

Next, let’s take a closer look at how to actually use the breakout room function on Zoom and the points to note.

When grouping before the meeting starts

The setting method when assigning groups before starting the meeting is as follows.

1. Open the Zoom website 
2. Select “Schedule a Meeting” on the My Account page
3. Select “Breakout room pre-allocation” in the option column
4. Select “Create Room” and assign participants
5. Select “Save”

If there are many people, it is also possible to import from a CSV file. However, at this time, participants can be pre-assigned only to users who belong to the same organization (account) as the host, so in the case of external events, etc., please assign the facilitator of the event organizer in advance. It will be a good usage.

Download the CSV file template, edit it, and import it.

When dividing into groups after the meeting starts

The setting method when using the breakout room function after the meeting starts is as follows.

1. Move the cursor to the toolbar at the bottom of the screen
2. Select “Breakout Session”
3. Select “Automatic” or “Manual”
4. After being sorted, it is possible to add rooms and move members.
5. After confirming the allocation, select “Open all rooms”

After the session is created, if you select automatic, Zoom will sort it out.

If you choose manual, you need to do the assignment yourself, so add any number of sessions and assign users.

Precautions before using the breakout room function

If you want to use the breakout room function on Zoom, you need to enable the settings in advance.

Here are the steps to enable the breakout room feature:

1. Open the Zoom website 
2. Select “Settings” on the My Account page
3. Turn on the “Breakout Room” item

You can now change the settings for the Breakout Rooms feature.

Also, when the breakout room function is turned on, a check box for “Allow hosts to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling” will be displayed.

By turning this on as well, you can pre-assign before the meeting starts.

Zoom optional functions that can be used together

When using the breakout room feature in Zoom, there are several optional features that can be set together.

Finally, let’s take a closer look at some optional settings to make better use of the Breakout Rooms feature.

Host entry/exit

The meeting host can check the progress of each group and answer questions during group work.

With the paid version of Zoom, you can assign host privileges to multiple users, which will help facilitate smooth meetings.

Message function

While using the Breakout Rooms feature, if you send a chat, the participants in the individual room will not be able to see the message.

If the host wants to contact each participant in an individual room, using the “Send message to all” function will enable batch communication.

timer function

The timer function allows you to specify a time limit for group work.

You can display a countdown of the remaining time to the participants in individual rooms, and choose to extend or end at the end timing.

Help function

If you want to ask the host a question during group work, you can send a notification to the host by using the help function.

The host can select and join the individual room where help was needed, which makes the response smoother and more convenient.

In addition to this, Zoom has many useful functions that can be used in breakrooms. Please take a look at the introduction on this page.

summary

• The breakout room function is a function that divides large meetings into smaller groups.
• Although the free version of Zoom can be used, there are many restrictions, so the paid version of Zoom is recommended for business use.
• You can use the breakout room function more conveniently by combining it with the optional function.

The breakout room function is one of the unique features of Zoom.

You can expect the effect of improving the quality of meetings and seminars, so please try using the breakout room function when introducing Zoom.