Breakout rooms

Breakout room creation

During a meeting

  • During a meeting, at the bottom of the screen in the meeting controls toolbar, click the Breakout rooms button. It looks like a smaller square inside of a larger one.
  • On the pop up page, fill in the number of breakout rooms desired and whether the attendees should be sorted into those rooms automatically or manually.
    • Automatically:  Attendees are distributed evenly and randomly into the breakout rooms.
    • Manually: The organizer gets to choose which attendees are placed in which breakout rooms. If selecting manually:
      • Choose the people you want in a room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.
      • Select the down arrow next to Assign and choose a specific room for them.
      • Repeat the previous steps until everyone in the meeting is assigned to a room. When you're done, select Confirm.
  • Click "Create rooms".

Before a meeting

  • In Teams, click the calendar symbol on the left side of the screen.
  • Double click the meeting in the calendar which one wants to add breakout rooms to. This meeting must already have been scheduled.
  • Click "Breakout rooms" and select "Create rooms".
  • Select how many breakout rooms are to be created, and click "Add rooms".
  • Click "Assign participants" and choose whether the attendees should be sorted into the rooms automatically or manually.
    • Automatically:  Attendees are distributed evenly and randomly into the breakout rooms.
    • Manually: The organizer gets to choose which attendees are placed in which breakout rooms. If selecting manually, click "Next" and:

      • Choose the people you want in a room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.

      • Select the down arrow next to Assign and choose a room for them.

      • Repeat the previous steps until everyone in the meeting is assigned to a room. When you're done, select Confirm.

Assigning a breakout room manager

The organizer of the meeting can delegate breakout room abilities to attendees that already have presenter privileges. A breakout room manager can: Add and delete rooms, assign and reassign participants to rooms, open and close rooms, join any room, set time limits for room sessions, send announcements, and recreate rooms.

Only one attendee can be the breakout room manager at a given time.

During a meeting

  • During a meeting, at the bottom of the screen in the meeting controls toolbar, click the Breakout rooms button. It looks like a smaller square inside of a larger one.
  • Select "Room settings", which is visible as a gear icon.
  • Toggle on the "Assign presenters to manage rooms" slider to on.

  • If no one in the meeting is designated as a presenter, select Go to Meeting options to add presenters and choose who you want to be a room manager. 

  • Otherwise, clicking the dropdown arrow allows one to select the desired attendee (with presenter privileges) to become a breakout room manager.
  • Clicking the back arrow within the page automatically saves the changes made.

Before a meeting

  • In Teams, click the calendar symbol on the left side of the screen.
  • Double click the meeting in the calendar which one wants to add breakout rooms to. This meeting must already have been scheduled.
  • Select "Breakout rooms" and click "Room settings".
  • Toggle on the "Assign presenters to manage rooms" slider to on.

  • Click "Search for presenters" and choose who is to be the breakout room manager.

Please contact the Science Computing Helpdesk.