Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host or co-host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or they can allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions as they please. The host or co-host can switch between sessions at any time.

By default Breakout rooms are ON for all Zoom meetings. Use the directions below to facilitate their use.

Breakout room can be created after the meeting has begun. The host or co-host can click on "Breakout Rooms" from the meeting bar to begin. From there participants can be randomly place in rooms, assigned rooms by the host or co-host, or allow participants to select which room to enter. Find detailed instruction on the Zoom website.

The host can pre-assign participants to breakout room prior to the start of the meeting or class. Select "Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms" on this page to learn more.

Use the CWRU Zoom web portal to assign your participants or students to breakout rooms prior to its start.

  1. After Signing In, click on Meetings from the left side menu.
  2. From the list, find the upcoming meeting or class. When you mouseover the title, select "Edit".
  3. Toward the bottom of the page, check the box next to "Breakout Room pre-assign".
  4. Follow the detailed instruction on the Zoom website.

Breakout rooms are sessions that are split off from the main Zoom meeting. They allow participants to meet in smaller groups and are completely isolated in terms of audio and video from the main session. By default, participants cannot make recordings in breakout rooms; this guide details how to change the default setting and allow participants to make recordings. Breakout rooms can only be recorded to the participants’ local computer and are not recorded to the Zoom Cloud.

Learn more from Recording Breakout Rooms document.