How Do I Pre-Assign Zoom Breakout Rooms?

Quicklinks:  Introduction to pre-assigned Breakout Rooms | Enabling Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms | Creating Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms | Create Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms Manually | Create Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms by .csv | Select Allow Participants to Choose their own Breakout Room | Before Opening Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms | To Open Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms | Tips and Tricks |

Introduction to Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms 

There may be times when you want to assign specific participants to specific breakout rooms. For example, you a series of meetings, where the same groups meet in each of those meetings. IMPORTANT: 

• As the meeting host, you are the only one who can set up and also facilitate these pre-assigned breakout rooms. 
• You can only pre-assign participants that have an active  Zoom account (internal or external Zoom users). 
  • To pre-assign participants that are external Zoom users, import a CSV file.
• You must set them up in advance PRIOR to starting the meeting. 
• If you scheduled recurring meetings, (for example, a recurring class meeting in the LMS) the pre-assigned breakout rooms will only work if it's applied to all meetings in the recurrence. You can't edit a single meeting in the recurrence and apply a unique pre-assignment. 
• Inevitably, there will be issues the first couple of times you facilitate a meeting with pre-assigned breakout rooms, so plan accordingly. See tips and tricks below. 

As an alternative solution, you may want to consider enabling the option to allow participants to choose their own breakout room instead of, or in addition to using pre-assigned breakouts. 

Enabling Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

 You need to enable the pre-assigned Breakout Room feature for Zoom if you have not done so before. This is a one-time only task that can only be done on the Chico State portal. 

1. From your browser,navigate to https://www.csuchico.edu/zoom. 

2. From the menu, select Settings. 

3. Select In Meeting (Advanced), and verify Breakout Rooms are enabled. 

4. Select Allow host to assign participants option. Save.

Creating Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

1. From the left side menu, select Meetings. 

2. Locate your meeting, hover to the right of the meeting and choose Edit.
   If you scheduled recurring meetings, (for example, a recurring class meeting in Blackboard Learn) the pre-assigned breakout rooms will only work if it's applied to all meetings in the recurrence. You can't edit a single meeting in the recurrence and apply a unique pre-assignment. 

3. To force students to be logged in with the correct account, select Only Authenticated Users can join then be sure to make sure your students sign into their zoom applications using SSO , If they do not sign in using this process they WILL NOT be able to enter your zoom meeting

4. On the Meeting Options screen, check Breakout Room pre-assign and choose Edit. 

5. You can either choose Create Rooms or Import from CSV. See Create Rooms below for examples. 

6. When complete, select Save. 

Create Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms Manually

Click the + to add rooms. You can edit the room names and also add participants via email. Alternatively, you could just create room names and then allow participants to choose their breakout rooms during the meeting. 

Create Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms by Import from CSV 

The CSV file of student emails must be in a certain format. To obtain a template of the CSV, click the download link to download the CSV template.

Enter room names and associated participant emails next to each room name. 

Save as a ,csv file and then import from Import Rooms window.

Managing Breakout Rooms During the Meeting

The following tasks can only be done during the live Zoom meeting. 

Select Allow Participants to Choose Their Own Breakout Room

If you use Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms, the Technology and Learning Program always recommends Allowing Participants to Choose Their Own Breakout Room as a best practice. This will help busy hosts better manage their meetings because Participants can join breakout rooms on their own if problems arise. 

• Start your Zoom meeting. From the Zoom task bar, select Breakout Rooms.

• Select Options > Allow Participants to choose room. 

Before Opening Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

• Please allow some practice time with pre-assigned breakout rooms. 
• Provide the following instructions to your students BEFORE the meeting:
  • Activate your Chico State Zoom account.
  • Sign in to Zoom using the Chico State Single Sign On option.  

To Open Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms:

• Start your Zoom meeting. From the Zoom task bar, select Breakout Rooms.

• When ready, tell Participants you are opening the rooms and choose Open All Rooms.

Tips & Tricks  

Issues with Breakout Rooms typically are due to the fact that students are either not signed into the Zoom desktop application or mobile app using their Chico State Zoom account. This may be due to the fact they are logged out, or perhaps logged in as someone else. Refer participants to this article to Verify You are Signed in to Zoom Using Chico State account. 

• Select Recreate and then choose Recover to pre-assigned breakout rooms button.
  This will help sweep late-comers into their assigned rooms. 

Notes:

• If a participant is in their pre-assigned breakout room and they leave the meeting and rejoin, they won't rejoin their pre-assigned breakout room.

• You can always manually assign participants using  in-meeting breakout room controls.