How to Use Breakout Rooms in Google Meet

Still have to learn from home or Learning from Home (LHM) but want to continue to carry out normal learning activities like face-to-face, such as discussions between groups in the classroom? Take it easy, you can use the Breakout Rooms feature in Google Meet to break the room into small groups while the video call is in progress.

The Breakout Rooms function can be used for students who want to carry out group discussions or assignments. The online learning system also becomes easier because teachers don’t need to schedule other meetings to gather students with smaller groups. With this feature, teachers can also monitor students who have been divided into small groups. Teachers can freely enter into groups and engage in discussion if needed.

Google provides access to up to 100 separate rooms in one video call. After the teacher or moderator decides how much room to make, Google will randomly group the list of called students in one room. Teachers are also free to manually add or manage which students they want to share with other rooms.

Only the teacher or moderator can create separate rooms within one video call link, and only one person can be the moderator. So if your class has a teaching assistant, he or she can only attend as a participant. However, if the teacher or moderator has to leave the meeting room, anyone can replace him, including the teaching assistant.

How to use Breakout Rooms on Google Meet

• For teachers or moderator

Create Breakout Rooms On a Video Call

• Start making google meet video calls.
• On the top right side, select activity>> Breakout Rooms.
• On the Breakout Rooms panel, select the number of rooms or small groups you want to form.
• Select the list of participants manually or click Shuffle, and Google will randomly group the students in one room.
• If everything is in order, click the Create option to activate Breakout Rooms.

Create Breakout Rooms On a Video Call

• To make changes to the group of participants or the number of breakout rooms, click Edit Breakout Rooms. After you make your changes, click Save.
• To join these rooms, click the Join option next to the number for each breakout rooms.
• To leave all breakout rooms and return to the Main Room or main room, click the Leave option next to the breakout room you last occupied.

End the Breakout Rooms Feature

• In the Breakout Rooms panel, click the End Breakout Rooms option at the top right.

• For Participants

Join the Breakout Rooms

• Log in to your Google account via a computer or mobile device.
• Join the Google Meet video call (If you’re calling from a cell phone, you won’t be able to join the breakout room).
• When the moderator invites you to join a breakout room, you’ll see prompts on the screen. Click Join.
• Once you enter the breakout room, you can talk or send chat messages to other participants.

Return to the Main Room

• Via computer: At the top, click the Return to main room option.
• Via mobile: At the top, Tap to return to the main room.

Initially, this feature was only available for G Suite Enterprise for Education users, but now it can also be used for the free version of G Suite for Education.