As a meeting host, you can split meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting.
Note: Pre-assigned breakout rooms are an advanced usage of Zoom
In this article:
- Limitations
- Adjusting Zoom User Account Settings
- Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms
- Video: Pre-assigning Participants
- Additional Resources
Limitations
- You can only pre-assign participants that will be logged into umn.zoom.us and authenticated on their Zoom account.
- A maximum of 1000 users can be pre-assigned to breakout rooms. This limitation is separate from the maximum number of users who can be in a breakout room.
- It is not currently possible to pre-assign users not part of the UMN Zoom instance.
Adjusting Zoom User Account Settings
You can change your settings to:
- pre-assign breakout rooms using emails
- require attendees to Authenticate so they can be recognized for room pre-assignment
- allow hosts to see who has not logged in
To Enable Breakout Rooms
- Go to umn.zoom.us and log in.
- Select Settings.
- Find and Enable desired settings:
- Only authenticated users can join meetings
- Breakout room
- Check Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling
- Identify guest participants in the meeting/webinar
Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms
You can create pre-assigned breakout rooms through the Zoom web portal after creating a meeting. You can create a meeting from many places, but pre-assigned breakout rooms must be created in the Zoom web portal.
- Create your meeting.
- If not already logged in, go to umn.zoom.us to log in. By default, you are in the Meetings tab after signing in.
- Select Edit next to the meeting you wish to add Pre-assigned Breakout rooms to.
- Under Meeting Options select the checkbox for Breakout Room pre-assign.
- In the pop-up that appears, choose Create Rooms or Import from CSV to build your pre-assigned rooms.
- Create Rooms: Assign participants to breakout rooms by adding their email address.
- Click the + icon next to Rooms to create a breakout room.
- Rename a breakout room by hovering over the default name and clicking the Edit icon that appears.
- Add participants by entering each email address in Add Participants
- Repeat steps a and b until all of your participants are assigned.
- Click the + icon next to Rooms to create a breakout room.
- Import from CSV: Upload a CSV file containing the breakout rooms and participant email addresses.
- The CSV file must be formatted as breakout room name, email. You can use this CSV file template.
- The CSV file must be formatted as breakout room name, email. You can use this CSV file template.
- Create Rooms: Assign participants to breakout rooms by adding their email address.
- Select Save to save the pre-assigned breakouts and return to the Edit Meeting page.
- Select Save to save the meeting.
Using Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms with a Recurring Meeting
When using pre-assigned breakout rooms with a recurring meeting, in order for the pre-assignment to apply to each recurrence, you must:
- Create and save the recurring meeting as normal
- Edit the meeting and add the pre-assignments following the steps in Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms
- Upon saving, your pre-assignments will apply to all instances of your recurring meeting.
Launching Pre-assigned Breakout Rooms
Participants must be logged in to their UMN Zoom account (from the Zoom app) in order for the pre-assignment to work for their email address upon opening breakout rooms. Communicate this information to your participants in advance of the meeting.
The meeting Host can open pre-assigned breakout rooms. Once breakout rooms have been opened, any co-hosts can move between breakout rooms, similar to the host.
- Select Breakout Rooms to access the pre-assigned breakouts.
- If a participant is not automatically assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting, select Recreate and then Recover to pre-assigned rooms.
- Anyone logged in as a guest or who logged in after you create the rooms will need to be manually assigned to a room.
- Select Open All Rooms.