Create and manage breakout rooms during class meetings

Before you get started, make sure you have the desktop app

You can create meetings in any version of Teams, but you'll need Teams for Windows or Mac to create breakout rooms for your students. Students can join from any version of Teams.

Next, schedule a meeting  or Meet now

1. Select Calendar  > + New meeting. You must be the meeting organizer in order to create and manage breakout rooms. 

2. Choose a channel to meet in or add students from your class as attendees.

Create breakout rooms 

1. Join your meeting at its scheduled time and wait for your students to join. Your meeting will open in its own window.

   Important: Make sure you join your meeting from the Teams desktop app (Windows or Mac) so you can create breakout rooms.

2. When your students have joined and you are ready, select Breakout rooms from your meeting controls.

3. Choose how many rooms you'd like to create from the dropdown.

4. Choose whether you'd like Teams to assign students to rooms Automatically or Manually if you'd prefer to assign students to rooms yourself.

5. Select Create Rooms.

Assign participants to rooms

If you chose Automatically, participants will already be assigned to different breakout rooms.

To manually add participants to rooms:

1. Select Assign participants.

2. Choose the students who will share a breakout room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.

3. Select Assign and then select a room for those students.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the whole class has been assigned to a room.

Rename rooms

Name your breakout rooms to reflect small student groups or projects.

1. Select More options next to the room, then Rename room.

2. Type in the new name and select Rename room.

Start breakout rooms

To start rooms individually:

• Select More options next to the room, then Open room.

To start rooms all at once:

• Select Start rooms.

You'll know rooms have successfully opened when their status changes to Open.

Join a breakout room

To join a room and check on its progress:

1. Select More options next to the room, then Join room.

2. Select Return when you're ready to leave the breakout room and return to the main meeting.

Send an announcement to breakout rooms

Once breakout rooms have started, send announcements to give time updates or share prompts.

1. Select More options > Make an announcement.

2. Type in your announcement and then select Send.

3. Students will receive a notification in their meeting chat to check for your announcement.

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Reassign participants

Move participants to different breakout rooms individually.

To move participants individually:

1. Expand the list of participants under a breakout room.

2. Hover over a student's name and select the checkbox that appears.

3. Select More options and then the breakout room you'd like to move the student to.

Chat with participants in a breakout room

Each breakout room will have its own chat. You and students will be able to access it from your chats list and from Chat   in the breakout room, just like regular meetings.

• Students will only be added to a breakout room chat when you start the room. They will be removed as soon as the room is closed.

• You will have access to all breakout room chats.

• Students can still see the chat history and any files shared after the breakout room is closed.

Add or delete a breakout room

To add an additional breakout room: 

• Select Add room. Give your new room a name and confirm.

• Add participants to the room using the instructions above.

To delete a breakout room:

• Select More options next to the room, then Delete room.

Close breakout rooms

To close rooms individually:

• Select More options next to the room, then Close room.

To close rooms all at once:

• Select Close rooms.

You'll know rooms have successfully closed when their status changes to Closed.

• Select Resume when everyone is back from their breakout rooms and you're ready to meet as a larger group again.

Save files, recordings, and notes from breakout rooms

Files, recordings, and notes from a breakout room can be accessed in its chat. You and your students will be able to access these materials after the room has closed, but students will not be able to chat or add additional materials.

Edit breakout room settings

To edit settings, select More options > Rooms settings.

• Automatic room setting

By default, breakout rooms will be set to automatically move students into opened rooms. If you'd like to change this setting, switch the toggle for Automatically move people into opened rooms to off.

When the automatic setting is turned off, students will receive a message asking them to join a breakout room. They will need to select Join room before being moved.

• Allow students to return to main meeting

By default, this setting will be off. To turn it on, switch the toggle next to Participants can return to the main meeting to on.

This will allow students to leave their breakout rooms and return to the original meeting to rejoin the larger discussion. 

Recreate rooms from scratch

Return to the beginning of the breakout rooms process to start over and reconfigure your rooms and assignments.

1. Select More options> Recreate rooms.

2. Follow the steps to create new breakout rooms and assign students.