The Breakout rooms allow a meeting organizer to divide the meeting into sub-groups to facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions. The organizer can start the Breakout rooms in a Teams meeting or a Teams channel meeting. The meeting organizer can create, rename, and delete rooms as needed.  Once the Breakout rooms are open, the meeting organizer can join any of the Breakout sessions.  The organizer can send announcements to the breakout rooms and recall all participants back to the main meeting at any time.


Note:

  •  It is only for Microsoft Teams Desktop App (PC & Mac.)It is not available for Mobile or Web versions.  You need to be a meeting organizer and be present in the meeting.
  • You can only organize the participants into Breakout rooms once the meeting has started.
  • Participants can join a Breakout room via Desktop, Mobile, or Web version. In the Breakout room, participants can record the meeting or use Whiteboard to collaborate on work.


Part I:  Create Breakout rooms


  1. If you haven't done so already, turn on the “New Teams Meeting experience” and restart Teams. See the tutorial.
  2. When students have joined your meeting, in Meeting Controls, select Breakout rooms
  3. In the “Room settings” section, select how many rooms you would like to create from the drop-down list.
    Note:  The maximum number of breakout rooms is 50.
  4. In the “Participants” section, select Automatically or Manually to assign participants.
    Note:  This is the only time you can choose to assign students automatically to a room.  You won’t be able to choose this option later.
  5. Select Create Rooms


This image is for the tutorial part I steps 2-5. 



Part II.  Assign Participants to Rooms


If you chose Automatically, participants will already be assigned to different breakout rooms. Use the following instructions to manually add participants to rooms:


  1. Expand the list of participants, click the arrow next to the Assign participants.
  2. Choose students by selecting the checkbox.
  3. Click the Assign button.
  4. Choose a room from the list.
  5. Repeat this process until all students have been assigned to rooms.
    Note: To view the participants assigned to a Breakout Room, expand the arrow next to the room’s name.


This image is for the tutorial part II steps 1-5.


 

Part III.  Rename, Delete, or Add a Room


  1. By default, the Breakout rooms are named Room 1, Room 2, ..etc. To rename the room, click the room’s 3 dots (… more options,) then select Rename room.
  2. Enter the new name for the room, then select Rename room.
  3. To delete a Breakout room, click the room’s 3 dots (… more options,) then select Delete room.
  4. To add an additional room, in the “Manage rooms” section, click Add room.
  5. A new room is added to the end of the room list.


This image is for the tutorial part II steps 1-3.
This image is for the tutorial part II steps 4-5.


 

Part IV.  Start Breakout Rooms and Join a Breakout Room


  1. When you are ready to split participants into Breakout room, click Start room.
    Note: When participants join their breakout room, they have all the functionality of a presenter, such as recording meeting.
  2. When the status of rooms changes to Open, you will know rooms have opened successfully.
  3. To start rooms individually, click the room’s 3 dots (… more options) next to the room, then select Open room.
  4. To join a Breakout room, click the room’s 3 dots (… more options) and select Join room.
    Note: Participants do not receive any notification of the organizer’s joining. 
  5. To leave the Breakout room and return to the main meeting room, select Return from the Meeting Control.

This image is for the tutorial part IV steps 1-3.
This image is for the tutorial part IV steps 4-5.



Part V.  Send an Announcement to Breakout Rooms


  1. To broadcast an announcement message via meeting chat to all Breakout rooms, in the “Breakout rooms” pane, click 3 dots (… more options) and select Make an announcement.
    Note:  Participants can see this announcement message and respond it in the Breakout room chat.  Organizer also can access each Breakout room chat. 
  2. Type in your message, then select Send.
  3. Students will receive a notification in their meeting chat to check for your announcement.

This image is for the tutorial part V steps 1-3. 



Part VI.  Reassign participants


You can swap participants into different rooms individually.  Currently, you can only move participants when breakout rooms are closed.  To move participants individually:


  1. To expand the list of participants, click the arrow next to the Assign participants.
  2. Choose a student by selecting the checkbox. Then click Assign
  3. Select a Breakout room you’d like to move the student to.


This image is for the tutorial part VI steps 1-3.