Managing Participants & Breakout Rooms

Managing Participants

As host, you (or a Zoom Assistant or Teaching Assistant, if you have one) can manage participants. To manage participants, click on the Manage Participants control bar.

Breakout Rooms

Breakout Rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting into separate sessions. This is useful for small group discussions, active learning techniques like think-pair-share, or brief individual meetings with students.

  • The meeting host must assign breakout rooms. 
  • However, as an instructor, you can get assistance setting up breakout rooms during a meeting by passing your host privileges to one of your participants making them co-host.
  • A co-host can leave and join any breakout room only if they first join a breakout room assigned to them by the host.

NOTE : If a co-host is added in a meeting, that person is able to move between rooms as described. However, if that person is a co-host because he or she was assigned as an alternative host when the meeting was initially scheduled, he or she will not be able to move between breakout rooms.

Creating Breakout Rooms during a Zoom Session

  • Only the host can assign participants to breakout rooms.
  • The host can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when you schedule the meeting instead of managing them during the meeting. See more information in a future module: Pre-Assigning Breakout Rooms

Managing Participants in Breakout Rooms

  • Only the host of the meeting, not the co-host, can create breakout rooms.
  • An instructor must assign a participant as a host if they would like them to assist in creating or managing the breakout rooms.

Managing Chats

  • The chat function is a great way to quickly view student feedback and questions.
  • You may ask or assign a participant to manage the chat during the Zoom meetings.

Participants' Menu and Reactions

  • The Participants' Menu and Reactions allow for additional modes of student engagement. For example, students can quickly indicate "yes" or "no" by clicking on an icon. There are additional icons and reactions available.
  • Nonverbal feedback icons can be used for informal polling during a class. You might say, “Those who think XYZ is the best solution, give a thumbs up” to quickly get a general impression of class reactions.
  • See more information in a future module: Participants' Menu & Reactions

Managing the Whiteboard