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How to create and manage Breakout rooms in Zoom,

Breakout rooms:  A tool available to the host of a Zoom meeting that allows for the assignment of students into different groups.  The groups can then "breakout" into separate "rooms" and have sessions of their own.  The host can join any of the sessions and switch between any of the sessions at any time.  The sessions can be vacated, and students can come back to the main meeting. The main meeting is akin to a plenary session and the breakout rooms are the different subsessions. 

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1. 1. sign into whitman.zoom.us
   2. Click on the Schedule a Meeting button on the far right of the screen.
   3. Fill out and select all the parameters of your meeting, before you save - make sure you do the following:
   4. Under Meeting Options, tick Breakout Rooms pre-assign
   5. Click on Image AddedImport from CSV
      1. At the top of the "Import Rooms and Participants from CSV file" window click on download and open this file.
         1. Open the downloaded file with Excel or other spreadsheet program
            1. This file will consist of two colums: Pre-assign Room Name and Email Address  - DO NOT REMOVE THE COLUMN NAMES (HEADERS) OF THIS FILE
         2. Fill in out this table with room numbers and email addresses.  The room number column will have several repeated entries, but the email address column should list each email address only once. A sample is below:
            
            

         Pre-assign Room Name	Email Address
         room1	unique_student@whitman.edu
         room1	not_the_same@whitman.edu
         room2	another_student@whitman.edu
         room2	individual_student@whitman.edu
         room3	not_repeated_student@whitman.edu
         room3	particular_student@whitman.edu

         
         

   6. Save this file as a CSV (Comma delimited) file.  Microsoft Excel may warn you about loosing some features of your workbook if you save it as a CSV file, that is ok - continue to save it as a CSV.   Also, note the location where you saved it (you may need to access it during a meeting)

   7. Back in the "Import Rooms and Participants from CSV file" pop up window:  Either "Drag and Drop your CSV file" into the large gray box  (or click on browe, and select the location of the file you just saved, then click open). 
   8. Zoom will save your pre-assignments and break out rooms.  You can verify this by looking under the option for Breakout Room pre-assign  option, the number of rooms created will be listed with the ability to click on Edit to change your pre-assignments
      
      

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Whether your breakout room assignments were preplanned (as in Method 2 above) or they have yet to be assigned (as in Method 1 above), the way you launch Breakout rooms is the same - through the Breakout Rooms tool Image Addedin the meeting control toolbar during a meeting.

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• If you edit your meeting at all, even if it does not involve the breakout rooms feature, be sure to double check that the breakout rooms are still pre-assigned after you save your meeting edits.  Sometimes, adding an alternative host, or changing a meeting parameter causes Zoom to drop the pre-assigned breakout rooms.  This is a known fault that Zoom is working on.  This is part of the reason why creating breakout rooms after a meeting starts is recomended.   Having the CSV file of your pre-assigned breakout rooms is handy, in case you have to quickly reload it before the session starts. Alternatively, reloading your preassigned breakout rooms could be the last thing you do after any meeting edits.
• If you tick the Only authenticated users can join box when scheduling your meeting, only those participants who have authenticated through a Whtiman authentication service will be able to join.  Outside guests will be excluded.
• When participants show up late, they will not be automatically placed in the breakout rooms, be sure to keep an eye on your particpant list to see if someone is in the waiting room.  Once admitted you can place them in a breakout room from the Breakout Room list window
• You cannot use the Chat feature to send everyone in a meeting a message, once the breakout rooms are open.  Use the Broadcast a message to all button instead (located on the bottom of the Breakout Rooms - in progress window) 
• If you want to share any content (via Chat), share this content before you open the breakout rooms.  This is a lot easier than joining each session individually and sharing content. Share before you open. 
• Each participant in a breakout room has the ability to press an Ask for Help button in their toolbar. When pressed this will send the host a message, giving the name of the person who asked for help, the breakout room they are in, and will present the option to press a Join Breakout Room button

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