Use Zoom breakout rooms

Structure online activities 

Keep the session varied by breaking  your class into different sections, allocating clear time slots for each component, for example, 20 minutes for group work, then 10 minutes for discussion and sharing. Depending on the activity, try to match an appropriate amount of time and number of students to the breakout task. Don’t linger on any one component for too long and signpost clearly throughout so students can stay on track. Also consider chunking your activity into several parts and alternating between the whole class and breakout rooms if you have several tasks for them to complete.

Scaffold collaboration with shared online resources

Prepare a shared online space, such as a Google document or virtual whiteboard (e.g. Google Jamboard, Padllet), for students to work on collaboratively. This allows student group work to be visible and easily shared, both during and after the session, and gives them something concrete to work towards, forming the basis of follow up discussions and activities.

Examples

Before sending students to breakout rooms, give clear instructions for your activity so students have a clear understanding of what to do and what is expected of them. Allow students to ask questions and provide clarification if needed.

If students will be working with a shared Google document, include task guidelines or instructions highlighted at the top of the shared document. This will allow instructions to still be visible to students once they have been moved into breakout rooms.

It is also recommended that you make discussion questions for activities available in Moodle in advance where possible.

During the session, you can choose to assign the participants into breakout rooms automatically, manually or enable them to self-select which room they wish to join. You can also choose to pre-assign students to breakout rooms before the Zoom meeting. Consider the frequency of classes, cohort size, goals and objectives when setting up groups. Depending on the activity, try to match an appropriate number of students to the breakout task.

Each method has its own advantages. With random automatic selection, students can potentially interact with new students further expanding their perspective or knowledge base. With pre-assignment, students can work with their assigned group based on their groups in Moodle.

Note: It is not recommended to change group composition too often, as students may not be able to take the time to get to know their classmates when assigned to new groups each time.

Click on each icon to learn more about the various Zoom breakout settings and how they can be used. You can view these settings with the settings cog (highlighted with the red box) once you have clicked on the breakout room icon in zoom and created rooms.

You can assign specific students to breakout rooms in advance of the Zoom meeting, if desired. This is very useful if you have a set group of students working together throughout the semester.

When creating a new Zoom meeting, under Meeting options, tick the Breakout Room pre-assign checkbox. Selecting this option will allow you to Create rooms or Import from CSV. Use the Breakout rooms template .CSV provided by Zoom, which can be downloaded by clicking here. You will also require student email addresses.

1. To export student emails from Moodle, navigate to your Moodle unit Participants page.
2. You can use the filter options to filter using participants by roles. For example, selecting to filter by Role:student will exclude participants with Lecturer, Tutor or other non-student roles.
3. Select all students with the checkbox in the column heading.
4. With the selected users drop down list, select Download data as Comma separated values (.csv).

   

5. Once you have created your groups in the Zoom breakout room template, in Meeting options, click on Import from .CSV and upload your file.
   

   Note: For pre-assigned breakout rooms to work, students must log-in with their student email that matches their email used in the .CSV file. Make sure you instruct students to sign in to Zoom using their Monash ID.

Students will have the best experience of breakout rooms if they understand how to use Zoom’s various functions, such as screen share, the Zoom whiteboard, annotation and how to Ask for Help during the breakout session.

The Ask for Help button is at the bottom of their breakout room window. If clicked, this will notify the Zoom host that someone is requesting help and the host or co-host can join the breakout room.

You may wish to spend a portion of your first Zoom class teaching students how to use these functions before sending them to separate breakout rooms. You could even incorporate these functions into an icebreaker activity, for example have students annotate and draw on a blank activity slide you have prepared.

You can share the LearnHQ student guides for Zoom in Moodle and also before or during the Zoom meeting.