Zoom Hosts now have the ability to create and launch "Self-Select" Breakout Rooms. Through this method, Zoom participants can select which room they would like to join. The participants will be able to move around freely between breakout rooms without intervention from the Host.
This is an alternative to the "Pre-Assigned" breakout room method, which could require some extra time and effort from the Host to set up properly. NOTE: Both the meeting host and participants must be on Zoom v.5.3.0 or above to take advantage of the self-select breakout room feature.
Launching "Self-Select" Breakout Rooms
There are no additional settings or configurations necessary to launch "self-select" breakout rooms.
- Launch a Zoom meeting as the Host.
- Select the "Breakout Rooms" icon from the meeting controls bar.
- Configure the total number of breakout rooms you'd like to open.
- Select the "Let participants choose room" option and click "Create".
- The next window will display all the rooms you generated. Here, you may rename the rooms, edit the number of total rooms, or adjust other breakout room settings. Click "Open All Rooms," when you are ready.
- Participants will receive a list of all the available breakout rooms. Participants will hover over the room they would like to enter and then click "Join."
Recommendations for Assigning Participants to "Self-Select" Breakout Rooms
This breakout room option removes some of the extra work necessary when creating pre-assigned breakout rooms. Instructors can instead assign students to groups outside of Zoom (GauchoSpace, Nectir, Email, Google Doc, ect.) and simply ask the participants to join the group they were assigned to.
Another alternative would be for the Host to initially launch breakout rooms using the
"assign automatically" method (evenly distributes participants into the available rooms at random) and then ask the participants to record their group details (group-mates and group number) for future sessions. For subsequent meetings, all the host will have to do is launch the necessary number of rooms and let the students join their groups on their own.