Microsoft Teams Tutorial: Setup Breakout Rooms Before a Meeting
When Microsoft first added breakout room functionality to Microsoft Teams meetings, users were not able to actually create breakout rooms before a meeting began. Microsoft has since implemented the ability to set up breakout rooms in advance of a Microsoft Teams meeting. In its current iteration, users can:
- Setup breakout rooms before the meeting begins
- Configure individual breakout room settings
- Rename breakout rooms
- Assign participants
- Assign breakout room managers (for more info on breakout room managers, check out this post).
This post will outline how to set up breakout rooms before a meeting in Microsoft Teams.
Steps To Setup Breakout Rooms Before a Meeting in Microsoft Teams
Step 1: You will need to first schedule a meeting with multiple participants. When scheduling the meeting invitation, you’ll notice that the only meeting tabs displayed are “Details” and “Scheduling Assistant”.
Step 2: Once the meeting invitation has been sent, right-click on the meeting and click “Edit”. You’ll notice that now there are multiple tabs. Click on the “Breakout Room” tab.
Step 3: Click on “Create Rooms”.
Step 4: Next, you will be prompted to select how many rooms you need. Select the number of rooms that you need from the drop-down and then click “Add Rooms”.
Step 5: The breakout rooms will not be displayed as cards in the breakout room tab of the Microsoft Teams meeting invite. To assign participants to a breakout room, proceed to step 6.
Assign Participants To Breakout Rooms Before a Meeting In Microsoft Teams
Step 6: To assign participants to a breakout room before a meeting in Microsoft Teams, click on the meeting invite and click on the “Breakout Rooms” tab. Then click on “Assign Participants”.
Step 7: Next, Microsoft Teams will prompt you to add participants manually or automatically. If you want Teams to randomly assign participants into breakout rooms, click “Automatically” and then “Next”. If you want to assign participants into rooms, select “Manually” and click “Next” (and proceed to Step 8 below).
Step 8: Next, check the box to the left of the participants that you want to add to a room. Then click on the “Assign” drop-down and select the desired breakout room. Once you’ve assigned all of your participants, click the “Assign button”.
And that’s it! That is how you can set-up breakout rooms before a meeting begins in Microsoft Teams!
Subscribe For More Microsoft Teams Tutorials
Be sure to subscribe to my mailing list to receive Microsoft Teams tutorials delivered right to your inbox a maximum of once per month.
