Before You Begin

Zoom allows the meeting host or co-host to join breakout rooms and move from one breakout room to another to join in on discussions. This is helpful if you want to check in on student progress during the breakout rooms. If you created and joined a meeting, but do not see the option to assign a co-host you may need to claim the host role. To do so, see "How to claim host in Zoom."

Identify your co-host

Assigning a co-host in Zoom will allow them to join and move between breakout rooms. A co-host can only be assigned after the Zoom meeting has started and both the host and the person you would like to be the co-host have joined the meeting.

Note: If you created and joined a meeting, but do not see the option to assign a co-host you may need to claim the host role. To do so, see "How to claim host in Zoom."

To assign a co-host, follow these steps.

1. As the host of the meeting, make sure you are logged in to Zoom when you start your meeting.
2. From the main Zoom control screen click Manage Participants to pull up a list of those in the Zoom meeting.

3. Hover your mouse over the participant’s name and click the More button next to their name.
   
   
   

4. Click Make Co-Host.
   
   

5. Click Yes on the confirmation box that appears

Create the Zoom Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms can be created in three different ways:

• Automatically during the meeting
• Manually during the meeting
• Prior to the Zoom meeting starting

Note:  In order for the co-host to be able to rotate between breakout rooms, they MUST join a breakout room before they will see the Breakout Room button and be able to join other breakout rooms.

Automatically during the meeting

1. Click the Breakout Rooms button.
2. See how many students/participants you have in your meeting.
3. Adjust the number of rooms until you have the desired number of students/participants per room.
4. Make sure Automatically is selected.
5. Click Create Breakout Rooms

Manually during the meeting

1. Click the Breakout Rooms button.
2. See how many students/participants you have in your meeting.
3. Adjust the number of rooms until you have the desired number of students/participants per room.
4. Make sure Manually is selected.
5. Click Create Breakout Rooms

6. A list of meeting participants will appear.  If you need to add more breakout rooms from this screen, you can click the Add a Room button to add additional breakout rooms.

7. Click on the Assign link next to each of the breakout rooms and select the participants to add to each breakout room by checking the box next to their name. 
   
   
   
   
8. Click on the Options button.
   
   
9. Check the box next to Move all participants into breakout rooms automatically. Otherwise, students will need to click a “join” button that will delay the breakout rooms and cause confusion.

10. Once the assignments have been made, click on Open All Rooms to invite each participant to their respective room.
    
    

11. Once breakout rooms have all started, both the host and the co-host will see the

below screen when they click on Breakout Rooms from the main Zoom control window. Either the host or co-host can join each breakout room by clicking the Join link next to the room they want to join. 

Note: If the co-host leaves the breakout room to return to the main session, they can only join the breakout room they were originally assigned (but can then move around breakout rooms again once they join).

Create Breakout Rooms for Pre-existing Student Groups Prior to the Zoom Meeting

If you would like to assign breakout rooms prior to the start of your Zoom meeting, please see, “How can I use pre-existing student groups to populate Zoom Breakout Rooms?”