How do I pre-assign students to Zoom breakout rooms for a meeting scheduled in Canvas? (Instructors)

Faculty can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms either to use the same participant groups for recurring meetings for the semester or to use for a singular meeting. The steps below are recommended in order to take advantage of the Zoom/Panopto integration where Zoom recordings can be automatically transferred to Panopto for long-term storage. For more details about how to set up your Canvas course to use the integration, view How do I set up Zoom recordings to automatically save to my Panopto course folder? (Instructors)

Note that students must be logged in to Zoom in order to be pre-assigned to a breakout room. When setting up the meeting, step #7 will force all students to log in before joining the meeting. Additionally, students must join the meeting using the Zoom desktop or mobile app; if they join from the web client, they will not be able to join a breakout room.
 

Set Up Breakout Rooms to Use for the Whole Semester (i.e., same group of students)

Schedule the Zoom Meeting in Canvas

1. Navigate to your Canvas course.
2. Select Zoom from your course navigation. (You may need to first add Zoom to Canvas if it is not enabled.)
3. Select Schedule a New Meeting.
4. Enter a name for the meeting in the Topic field. 
5. In the When field, set the date and time of your first meeting.
6. Select the Recurring meeting option. Change the recurrence to Weekly, check off the relevant days of the week, and set the End Date.
7. Under the Meeting Options, select Only authenticated users can join and select Authenticated Butler Users Only from the dropdown menu.
8. To record the meeting automatically so that it saves to your Panopto course folder, select Record the meeting automatically and select In the cloud. (Note: If you record automatically, it is recommended to uncheck "allow participants to join anytime")
9. Select Save.

Set Up Breakout Rooms in Zoom.butler.edu

1. Navigate to zoom.butler.edu and select Meetings from the menu at the right.
2. Locate your course meeting and click on the meeting name link.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the meeting details and select Edit this Meeting.
4. In the Edit Meeting window, select All.**
5. Under Meeting Options, select Breakout Room Pre-Assign.
6. Select +Create Rooms.
7. Click the plus icon (+) next to Rooms to add a new room.
8. Add students to the room by entering their Butler email in the Add Participants field and pressing Enter/Return on your keyboard.
9. Repeat steps 7-8 for each breakout room needed.
10. Press Save to close the Breakout window.
11. Select Save to save the meeting changes.

**Note that you cannot pre-assign students to breakout rooms for only one occurrence. If the Breakout Room Pre-Assign field in step 5 is greyed out, you chose to edit a single occurrence instead of all. Cancel your edits and start from step 3 above.
 

Using Pre-Assigned Breakouts in a Meeting

1. Launch your Zoom meeting.
2. After your students join, select Breakout Rooms from the Zoom meeting controls. (If you do not see Breakout Rooms, first select the More button.)
3. You should see the breakout rooms you created with the students in each room. 
   1. If you do not see the correct rooms or student names, select Recreate. 
   2. Select Recover to pre-assigned rooms from the list.
   3. Click Yes when prompted.
4. Select Open All Rooms.
5. To bring students back into the main room, select Close Rooms.

 

What records in a Breakout Room?

The Panopto/Zoom integration requires the instructor to record their Zoom meeting to the cloud. With cloud recordings, Zoom only records the main room, i.e. no breakout rooms.

Instructors can allow students to record their breakouts locally (to their own computers). Instructors can also ask students to submit these recordings to Canvas if assessment or feedback is needed. Note that an assignment or discussion board must first be set up prior to student submissions.

Related Resources

How do I use Zoom Breakout Rooms for small group discussions during a virtual meeting?
What should I do if I do not see my students in their pre-assigned breakout rooms in Zoom? (Instructors)
How do I pre-assign external users to Zoom breakout rooms?