Breakout Sessions: Facilitating Small Group Work Efficiently

Interactive sessions often gain quality through the targeted use of group work. With Breakout Sessions, you can move participants from the main plenary session into smaller, separate workspaces.

In these protected areas, both audio and video connections are limited to the respective group members, enabling focused and undisturbed collaboration.

Video Tutorial

Would you like to see these features in action? Click here for the Breakout Sessions video guide

Expand Table of Contents

• settings Managing Breakout Sessions
  • Creating Sessions
• group_add Assigning Participants
• Controlling Phases: Start and End
• campaign Communication & Messages
• content_copy Saving Results: Copying Tools

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settings Managing Breakout Sessions

Group rooms are managed by (Co-)Group Administrators directly from the main plenary session.

1. Open the main menu at the top left.
2. Select the entry arrow_split Breakout Sessions.

Figure: Breakout session management dialog

Creating Sessions

Use the add Add Breakout Sessions button to create multiple rooms simultaneously—either in preparation or while a session is already running. These will then be listed clearly below the plenary session.

Figure: Plenary session with three active breakout sessions

::: info Join Parallel Sessions Using the open_in_new Open Additionally function, facilitators can open breakout sessions in new browser tabs. This allows you to be present in multiple groups at once. Tip: Simply mute the audio for each tab in your browser if you only want to actively listen in one specific session. :::

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group_add Assigning Participants

You can flexibly distribute participants (from ad-hoc sessions or fixed groups) among the rooms:

• Random Assignment: Click graph_4 Assign Participants to generate an automatic distribution. You can click the button multiple times to "reshuffle" the mix. Note: Facilitators are not automatically assigned by default, allowing them to switch between rooms as needed.
• Manual Assignment: Simply drag & drop participants from the plenary into the desired room, or move individuals between different groups.

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Controlling Phases: Start and End

Once the groups are set, you can control the work phase centrally:

• arrows_output Start All: Activates the group phase. Participants receive a notification and are automatically redirected to their assigned room.
• arrows_input End All: Ends the group work. You can add a custom text to the automatic recall message (e.g., "We are now meeting in the plenary for the results presentation").

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campaign Communication & Messages

As a facilitator, you can stay in touch with all groups without having to enter each room individually:

• chat_info Message to All: Send organizational notices (e.g., "5 minutes left") to all rooms simultaneously. The message appears at the top right and remains visible until it is clicked or replaced by a newer message.
• 3p Message to Hosts: Participants can send specific questions to the facilitation team. These messages are delivered to all (Co-)Group Administrators in all active rooms.

Figure: Display of a global message

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content_copy Saving Results: Copying Tools

A major advantage is the seamless transfer of content between the plenary and breakout rooms:

1. Preparation: At the start, copy a tool containing the task description from the plenary into all breakout sessions.
2. Securing Results: After the breakout phase, copy the created whiteboards or documents from the breakout sessions back into the plenary for joint discussion.

To do this, open the tool menu within the respective tool and select Copy to Breakout Session. You can then easily select the target session.

Figure: Tool transfer between sessions

Further Links

Learn more about general functions in the Tool Menu.