Virtual Learning Tip: Google Meet Breakout Rooms

 USING BREAKOUT ROOMS IN GOOGLE MEET

So what are Breakout Rooms? Simply put, Breakout rooms are the ability to section your students into smaller groups within your video-conferencing software. Basically small groups in digital form!

But… how can you do it?

CREATE BREAKOUT ROOMS

On your computer, start a Google Meet. 

In the top right, click Activities   Breakout rooms.

In the Breakout rooms panel, choose the number of breakout rooms. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in a call. 

Students are then distributed across the rooms. To manually move students into different rooms, you can:

• Enter the participant’s name directly into a breakout room.
• Click the participant’s name. Hold down the mouse, drag the name, and then drop it into another breakout room. 
• To randomly mix up the groups again, click Shuffle .

In the bottom right, click "Open rooms".

EDIT, JOIN, or LEAVE BREAKOUT ROOMS
Once you’ve created breakout rooms, you can make changes to the rooms or join each breakout room to monitor and participate in discussions.

Edit Rooms

• To make changes to the participant groups or number of breakout rooms, click Edit breakout rooms . 
• Once you’ve made your changes, click "Save".

Join Rooms

• To join an individual breakout room, next to the breakout room number, click "Join". 
• You will then leave the main room and go into the breakout room.
• You cannot be in more than one breakout room at a time.

Leave a Room 
To leave all breakout rooms and return to the main room, next to the current breakout room, click "Leave".

END BREAKOUT ROOMS

In the Breakout rooms panel, at the top right, click Close rooms . 

In the notification window that appears, click "Close all rooms".

Important: Participants have 30 seconds to finish their breakout room discussion and will be asked to rejoin the main room. To bypass the 30 seconds and close all rooms immediately, on the breakout room panel, click Close rooms . Participants will have to click "Join" to re-enter the main room even if you close all rooms immediately.  

TIPS AND FEATURES

Asking for Help

• On the breakout room panel, an “Asked for help” banner shows above rooms that ask for help. 
• A notification will show at the bottom of the screen when students ask for help from the host. 
• To join that participant's breakout room, click "Join". 
• To return to that question later, click "Later".

Room Timer

You can set up a timer for your breakout rooms. Each room will display a 30 second countdown before the timer ends.

• At the top of the breakout rooms panel, click Timer .
• Set the timer  amount then click "OK".

Tip: You can edit or remove the timer at any time. On the breakout room panel, click Timerto edit.

Practice Expectations

Before sending your students into a Breakout Room, it is critical that you explicitly teach them what to do and how to interact in the rooms. Then practice those skills....repeatedly!

You may want to remind students to unmute their mics, contribute to discussions, and ask and answer questions respectfully before breaking them out into smaller groups. It’s also important for you to assign clear tasks for students to accomplish, and explain how students can get help when breaking out into groups.

Provide Materials BEFORE Students Leave the Main Room

It is critical to provide materials and resources for the Breakout Room before the students leave the Main Room. Once they leave the Main Room, they will no longer be able to see anything you are presenting or any information typed in the chat. Therefore, before they leave you will want to make sure they have their own copy or have opened the file with the directions, topic to discuss, or questions to answer on their own device.

Individual Breakout Rooms

Another option is to send the students to their own individual Breakout Room.  This could be useful if students are working on an individual activity, like an assessment or independent practice. During this situation, you may want the students to work on an individual activity for a brief amount of time before returning to the main meeting room. You would have the opportunity to pop into the individual rooms if a student needed help or to provide some one-on-one support.

Students can't get in the Breakout Room or get an Error Message

When using the Google Meet Breakout Room feature a student may get an error about an unsupported device, personal account, or they may just get kicked out when they try to join a breakout room. If this occurs, they are likely attempting to use the Google Meet Android App on their Chromebook. Breakout rooms are only supported in the web-based version of Meet. The solution is to uninstall the Android app and restart the Chromebook.

1. On the Chromebook, locate the launcher (circle) at the lower-left corner of the screen
2. Locate the Meet Android App by entering its name in the search bar or selecting it from the list of installed apps
3. Right-click (two-finger tap) over the app
4. Choose Uninstall
5. Restart the Chromebook

Good to Knows: 

• Hosts/Teachers won't see chat messages that were exchanged between students before they join or after they leave a breakout room.
• Before moving to a different room, students must click "Join". If they don't click the Join button, they will not be sent to the breakout room.

Hopefully these tips will make your Breakout Rooms a success and help increase your student's engagement.