Zoom breakout rooms allow students to work in small groups and then rejoin full-class sessions. To host a meeting with breakout rooms, you must start the meeting from the Zoom desktop application, rather than by clicking the meeting link in email or Canvas.

The video tutorial below walks through several important things to know about enabling breakout rooms and using breakout rooms during live class sessions.

Watch video: Intro to Zoom Breakout Rooms (05:35)

Steps:

  1. Navigate to the Settings area of the Zoom web portal.
  2. Find the “In Meeting (Advanced)” settings.
  3. Click the toggle next to “Breakout room.”
  4. Now, breakout rooms are enabled for future meetings.
  5. Start the meeting from the Zoom desktop application.
  6. Click the Breakout Rooms button, part of the host controls, to start the breakout room process while facilitating a live session