Virtual learning is popular because it is cost-effective and convenient. However, this learning arrangement can disengage students, especially during long sessions. 

When learners lose interest, they lack motivation, are unable to retain information, and perform poorly. This makes your job as an instructor much harder.  

One solution to this problem is deploying breakout rooms. These virtual spaces facilitate group interactions and active participation during lessons. In this guide, we will tell you everything you need to know about using these subspaces to keep learners engaged. 

What are Breakout Rooms?

A breakout room is a separate part of an online meeting where a small group can discuss a specific topic before rejoining the main meeting. 

In virtual learning, breakout rooms allow students to work in smaller, more focused units. This, in turn, enhances engagement, improves understanding of the material, and encourages active participation. 

Breakout rooms themselves are an answer to the question, ‘What is digital innovation?’ They represent a reimagining of small group discussions for the online environment, providing opportunities for collaboration and peer learning.

Benefits of Using Breakout Rooms

If correctly configured, breakout rooms can enhance the learning experience for students. Here are a few ways in which they can do so:

1. Enhanced Student Engagement

Students can easily become passive observers in a virtual classroom, especially during long lectures. However, breakout rooms can turn even the most passive learners into active participants. They create an intimate setting where learners feel comfortable asking questions, exchanging ideas, and offering feedback. 

Like multi line phone systems small business owners use to manage multiple calls, breakout rooms allow educators to manage several groups simultaneously. This maximizes student engagement and participation in a virtual environment. 

2. Personalized Learning Experience

People have different learning styles: Some learn fast, others slow, some are visual learners, and others prefer auditory materials. Breakout rooms can accommodate each of these approaches. 

With this feature, instructors can group learners based on their learning styles and interests. Advanced learners can also be paired with those who need help, fostering a supportive learning environment. 

3. Improved Collaboration Skills

Working together on assignments, solving problems, and exchanging ideas foster a sense of community and shared learning. Students also acquire collaboration skills that are highly sought after by employers during campus recruiting or internship applications. 

4. Better Learning Outcomes

When students actively participate in learning and collaborate with their peers, they are more likely to retain the knowledge. During breakout room sessions, students engage in discussions, share ideas, and provide feedback to one another, deepening their understanding of the topic.  

5. Increased Flexibility

Instructors can dynamically assign learners to breakout rooms, switch between rooms, or bring everyone back to the main session. As a result, they can adapt to the changing needs during classes. 

Setting Up Breakout Rooms

Dividing your class into small groups doesn’t guarantee active participation. You need to be intentional in your approach to get the best out of breakout rooms. This starts with setting them up the right way. 

Here are seven steps to achieve that:

1. Choose an Online Learning Platform with a Breakout Room

To set up and run breakout rooms successfully, your technology has to be right. So, use an online learning platform that offers a breakout room feature. But before investing in any one, consider the following factors:

Ease of use

The learning platform you choose should have an intuitive and user-friendly breakout feature. Ensure learners can easily join, leave, and navigate between breakout rooms without technical issues. 

Customization options

Select a platform that allows you to modify breakout room settings, such as the number of rooms, automatic or manual room assignment, and room duration. Also, check to make sure you can rename breakout rooms to reflect their purpose. 

Participation limit

Some platforms have participation restrictions. So, check that the one you choose can accommodate the number you want in each room. 

Engagement tools

You should also look for a platform that offers engagement tools like chats, surveys, polls, or hand-raising features that enhance interaction. The best platforms seamlessly integrate with a communications platform as a service. 

(If you’re wondering what a communication platform is, find out more on the communications platform as a service (CPaaS) meaning here. 

Moderation controls

Assess the platform’s moderation functions, including the capability to assign a facilitator or moderator to each breakout room. Ensure that moderators can move between rooms, observe discussions, and resolve any issues that arise. 

Integration

There are countless platforms today, and each has its own benefits. But to make sure both students and educators can maximize each one, it’s important that every tool can communicate with the other. 

In other words, making sure your chosen learning platform can integrate with other tools is key to managing these applications properly. Increased operational efficiency, resource optimization, alignment between departments, and standardizing technology — these are just some of the key application portfolio management benefits you can expect as a result.  

2. Set Up Your Virtual Class

You need to create the main session before the breakout rooms. This involves adding learners and instructors and putting up relevant features like quizzes, polls, Q&A sessions, or chat rooms.   

3. Create a Breakout Room

After configuring the main sessions, you are now ready to set up breakout rooms. Depending on the platform, you might be able to create the rooms before or during the class. While planning the rooms, consider the number of learners, the duration of the breakout session, and the lesson topic. 

4. Assign Students to Breakout Rooms

Your platform will determine whether or not you’ll be able to manually allocate learners to breakout rooms. If you are doing it manually, ensure you have a list of learners and the breakout rooms they are assigned to. In addition, you can let students choose the breakout rooms they prefer. 

5. Provide Instructions

Give learners specific guidelines about the goal of their breakout rooms before the sessions begin. These might contain assignments, discussion topics, or discussion questions tailored to a role-specific learning plan. You should also provide instructions for how to join and leave the breakout space. 

6. Launch the Breakout Session

Once everything is in place and everyone is ready, start the session. Based on the platform, you may be able to monitor the session or join to observe as a participant. 

7. End the Session

As soon as the allocated time elapses, bring everyone back to the main session and wrap up. This is an opportunity to summarize breakout room discussions and provide any additional resources or information. You may also request feedback on the breakout sessions to improve future lessons. 

Tips for Maximizing Student Engagement in Breakout Rooms

Have a Clear Plan

Before setting up breakout rooms, determine a clear objective for each session. Outline what learners should accomplish or discuss in each subspace and communicate them clearly in the beginning. If you do this well, students will not veer off course during sessions. 

Use Icebreakers

Prepare icebreaker activities to help students get comfortable with each other before sessions start. Fun questions or activities, such as “Two Truths and a Lie” or “Find Someone Who,” can create a relaxed atmosphere.

Another idea is allowing students to choose their breakout rooms. Doing this and limiting participants in each room creates an intimate environment where students feel more at ease.    

Assign Student Roles

Giving students responsibilities creates a sense of ownership in the breakout rooms. Choose a leader for each breakout room or ask for a volunteer. 

The group leader will help communicate the expectations and keep the group on track. If the discussions or group assignment is going silent or off-task, the group leader can guide the students back to the main topic. Giving students set roles prevents any silence or awkwardness. 

Start with Individual Tasks

Encourage students to prioritize individual tasks before group work. This approach helps facilitate meaningful discussions. It also ensures students focus on listening and speaking to each other rather than just finishing the work. As a result, it builds connections and encourages students to combine their ideas. 

Encourage Open Questions and Discussions

Breakout rooms provide an opportunity for learners to gain a deeper understanding of the main topic. So, encourage students to ask open-ended questions instead of yes/no questions. 

For example, a question like  “What are VoIP calls and their benefits?”, will promote thoughtful discussions compared to, “Are VoIP calls cheap?”

Open-ended questions stimulate critical thinking and encourage learners to explore different perspectives.

Provide Collaboration Resources

The main purpose of breakout rooms is to ensure students actively participate. Therefore, you need to give them the tools that can encourage collaboration.

This includes virtual whiteboards where students can add sticky notes with different ideas, mind-mapping tools, and file-sharing programs. 

These tools allow your students to gather insights together and create a living thing that reflects their time together. In addition, it is easy to share after the lesson and keep the conversation going.

Name Each Breakout Room

This may seem like a trivial detail, but naming breakout rooms offers a few benefits for learners. First, it makes the rooms more memorable and conveys their purposes more clearly. It also helps students navigate the list of rooms as they’re exploring their interests. 

Moreover, students are more likely to join a group named “Content Creators Corner” or “Brand Builders” over “Room 1” or “Room 2.”

An effective approach to creating breakout room names is to align them with the theme of the session.  

Set a Time Limit

To ensure learners stay on topic, allocate a duration for each breakout session. Establish time limits for group leaders and use timers or alerts to keep group members informed. 

However, you still need to allocate sufficient time to allow every participant to engage in meaningful discussions and complete tasks. 

Use a master scheduler software to assign dedicated time for teachers to conduct breakout sessions and ensure better time management.

Give Room for Students for Reflection and Feedback

Don’t just end breakout sessions. Give students a moment to reflect upon their virtual collaboration experiences. 

Afterward, ask students to return to the main session. Then, instruct group leaders or volunteers from each group to verbally present back to the main class.  Another option is for each group to type their replies in the chat box or share a collaborative document. 

Regardless of the option, ensure students have clear instructions in advance so they know how to proceed. 

By doing so, you can help make their interactions more productive and build communication and critical thinking skills. 

Wrap up the session by summing up the main point and topic discussed during the main lesson. In addition, ask students what they thought went right or wrong during the session and use their responses to optimize future sessions.  

Monitor Breakout Room Activities

Beyond student feedback, you also need data to analyze the effectiveness of breakout room sessions. Several webinar platforms and LMS (learning management system) allow you to monitor all breakout room interactions across your sessions. Take note of attendance levels, the elements students interacted with the most, and task completion rates. Then, use this data to shape your strategies. 

Best Platforms with Virtual Breakout Rooms

ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is an online meeting platform with a breakout room function. This platform allows you to create up to 20 breakout rooms and set up their duration time. 

You can then assign each student to a particular breakout room manually randomly. It also gives you access to participants’ mics so you control who speaks. And if students need to share their screens, you can do that in a single click. 

ClickMeeting also takes the safety of your classroom seriously. Breakout rooms on the program don’t have a public URL so you can keep intruders out of your class.

Cloudpresenter

Cloudpresenter is a high-level webinar platform with powerful features, one of which is breakout rooms. With this function, instructors can divide their classes into smaller groups for focused discussions. Cloudpresenter allows instructors to seamlessly assign students to rooms, monitor groups in real-time, and quickly regroup students into the main session. 

Livestream

Livestream is a comprehensive video engagement platform that also offers breakout rooms. One of the things that makes this platform stand out is its intuitive UI. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy for instructors and learners to navigate breakout rooms. 

Livestream also allows teachers to monitor breakout sessions in real-time and has high-quality video and audio. However, you can’t record breakout sessions, which means you can’t revisit past discussions. 

Wrap Up

Breakout rooms aren’t just opportunities for students to interact with one another; the main purpose of these spaces is to extend the classroom and engage students in active learning. 

Breakout rooms are spaces that allow learners to practice the class material, discuss it, and try things out. With correct configuration and use of breakout rooms, you can create an immersive learning experience for students.