Students and instructors have mixed reactions to smaller discussion groups in Zoom breakout rooms; some love them, others do not. When breakout room discussions work well, they can encourage reflection, creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration, as well as help students feel more connected to others in the class. Here are some tips for effective, productive use of breakout rooms while teaching.

Preparing to use breakout rooms

Learn the features and options for setting up breakout rooms

Practice setting up breakout rooms with friends or TAs ahead of time to test Zoom breakout room features.

Pick discussion topics that are interesting and complex

Breakout room discussions work better when the topic, case study, or question is interesting and complex enough to discuss for at least 5-10 minutes. Questions or tasks that are either too easy, too difficult, or too vague can result in silence in the breakout rooms.

Clearly communicate the task, purpose, and instructions

• What do you hope students will learn from the breakout room discussion or activity? Clarifying the purpose in your own mind will help you communicate it to students.
• Give clear instructions. Post the instructions in chat or in any collaborative documents you may be using (e.g., Google Docs).
• Consider assigning roles to students (e.g., the student with the largest number of pets should report out what the group discusses; the student with the closest birthday should be the facilitator and make sure that everyone has a chance to contribute).
• Wrap-up the discussion or activity by reviewing key ideas at the end with the entire class.

Norms and community

• Early in the semester, spend time discussing class norms and expectations. 
• Video cameras: Mark Savary and Frank Castelli have identified various reasons why students may be reluctant to turn their cameras on and also strategies to encourage them if they are able to use their cameras. How should students let you know if they are in a location where it would be difficult to have their video on?
• Especially in the first few classes of the semester, allow students time to get to know each other so they feel more comfortable in smaller discussion groups. Consider incorporating some icebreaker activities or fun question prompts for the first few breakout rooms.
• Some faculty (e.g., ecology course) assign students to permanent teams that meet together for all or part of the semester. This can help foster discussions by allowing students to get to know a smaller group. You can pre-assign students to breakout rooms to keep them in the same teams.

Managing time

• 5-15 minutes is a common range, although longer periods in breakout rooms may be necessary if students are working on a complex project together. For a good discussion, each participant should have at least 1-2 minutes to share. So, a group of 5 students would need around 5-10 minutes. If you like, you can set a timer (find it in the breakout room options for the meeting) before assigning students to rooms so they can see how much time is left.
• Check in with groups to see if they need more time or are finishing early, either by visiting the rooms or monitoring their progress on collaborative documents (e.g., Google Docs). You might also tell students to return to the main room if they finish early.
• If the task has multiple steps, you may want to broadcast a message to all the rooms to remind people when they should move to the next step.

Managing group size

• Create smaller groups (2-4) to provide each student more time to speak.
• If small breakout rooms tend to be too quiet, try increasing the numbers in each room. Some students may be in a location where they cannot easily participate.

Accountability and sharing

Find ways for students to be accountable for work in the breakout rooms. This might include:

• asking students to post their thoughts or answers in chat when they return to the main room
• calling on groups to report
• asking students to add to collaborative documents or whiteboard spaces (e.g., Google Docs, Jamboard, etc.)
• asking students to answer a question through a poll (e.g., Zoom polling or Poll Everywhere) at the end of the discussion
• asking students or groups to take a photo or screenshot (for example of a math problem) and submit it in Canvas for participation points

Visiting breakout rooms

Visiting breakout rooms is one way for instructors and TAs to give feedback, offer help, and get to know their students better. However, unexpected instructor pop-ins can also disrupt the conversation flow. One Cornell instructor (Desiree LeClerq) suggests waiting a few minutes for conversations to get started. Let students know ahead of time that you will be visiting the groups and say “Hi” when you arrive, so they know you have joined.

If you are using collaborative documents, you can also see what various groups are writing without joining the rooms. If there is a group that seems on the wrong track, you can visit that room to help.

While they are in breakout rooms, students may have questions for the instructor. Let them know about the "Ask for Help" button, which they can use in the breakout rooms to let instructors know they have questions.

Accessibility tips

• If you are answering questions or addressing conversations from the chat, read the questions/comments out loud
• Encourage students to share direct links to anything they screen share and encourage them to make sure that material is accessible