ClassIn Tip: Breakout Rooms
Updated: Aug 30, 2021
ClassIn Breakout Rooms feature allows teachers to create groups within a lesson. With the Breakout Room feature, you can enhance the lesson interaction and student engagement by facilitating team-based activities and self-directed learning activities. As a teacher, you can assist students to learn at their own pace by ‘observing’ and ‘joining’ the discussion room whenever necessary.
How to use?
1. Group Creation
To conduct a group discussion, click on the Breakout Rooms tab in the teaching toolbox.
Then, you will get a new window tab that you can configure the room creation settings. Here you can select the number of groups you would like to split into, and how you would like to assign your students to the groups.
The Number of Groups: It is 2 by default, and you can choose up to 50 different groups.
Random Creation: Automatic creation will create the groups automatically, splitting students into groups randomly.
Manual Creation: Manual creation will allow you to assign students to each group individually.
After completing the settings, click on the “Start Grouping” tab.
2. Group Settings
After clicking on “Start Grouping”, you will move onto the next window tab.
You can appoint students to be group leaders. This gives them access to tools that they can use to manage their groups. To select group leaders, double-click on the student’s tabs that you would like to choose as group leaders. You can identify the group leader by a student icon displayed on the student's tab in each group's pane.
As a teacher, you can also regroup the students. To re-assign students into another group, choose the creation option first and then click on the Regroup tab.
Random Reassignment: it will randomly recreate the groups and place students into the groups automatically.
Manual Reassignment: it will empty the group panes, and then you can manually drag and drop students from the Classroom panes onto each group pane.
After completing settings, click on the Start Discussion tab to start the group discussion.
3. During the discussion
1) Teacher
Broadcasting
As a teacher, you can broadcast your voice and camera to each group. To do this, tick the box at the bottom left corner of the window tab, which says "Synchronize audio and voice to discussion group". You may find it useful when you would like to give a guidance or time updates.
Observe a group
As a teacher, you can listen to what is happening in each group. To do this, click on the Observe tab in a group pane. When observing a group, students are not able to hear your audio.
Join in a group
As a teacher or an assistant, you can jump into each group. When you joined in a group, you can speak and interact with the students in the group. To do this, click on the Join tab in a group pane.
Chat box
Each breakout room will have its own chat. As a teacher you can have access to all breakout room chats. You will be able to access to any breakout room chat by selecting on the chat from your chats list.
Minimize the setting window tab
You can minimize the breakout setting window tab by clicking on the minimize icon at the top right of the corner on the window tab. You can open the setting tab at anytime by clicking on the breakout rooms icon at the top right of the corner on your screen.
2. Students
Once you start the breakout rooms session, students will be moved into the assigned breakout room. Inside the breakout room, there are some features that can help students manage the group.
Group leaders
Group leaders can manage other students by using the toolbar underneath the students’ cameras. Group leaders can mute participants, put them downstage, and 'authorize' participants. They can also see the teaching tools on their right hand side of the screen. Here they can open the teaching tool box that includes tabs for Open Image / Board file, Save Board file, Stopwatch, Timer and Dice.
Group participants
Group participants can get access to the annotation tools and the cloud drive once they are authorized by the group leader.
Chat box
Students can use the chat box within their breakout room to talk with other participants in the room. The chat is only visible within the group. Students in other groups will not see chat messages that were exchanged within the breakout room.
If students have any questions, they can use the Question tab in the chat window tab. The questions shared in the Question tab can be viewed by students in other groups.
4. After the discussion
To conclude the discussion, you can click “End discussion”, which will bring all students back to the classroom. You will still see the breakout rooms window tab on your screen. Here you can choose whether to continue the discussion, regroup, import the discussion result to the main blackboard, or end the breakout rooms.
1) Discussion result
Import the discussion result
You can copy the board files from each group after the discussion to the main blackboard. To do this, you can click on the Import icon in each group’s pane.
Bring students onstage
You can put students from one particular group on stage by clicking the Team Onstage icon on each group’s pane.
Copy the board file to each group: You can copy the board file on the main blackboard to each group. To do this, click on the Copy icon in each group’s pane.
2) Back to group discussion
Unless you close the breakout room window tab, you can always send students back to the groups where they were assigned to. Also, you can always regroup the students. This is useful when you want you students to share their ideas with as many as students.
3) End the discussion
To end Breakout Rooms feature, click the close icon at the top right of the tab window.
Related Resources
About ClassIn: https://www.classin.com/en/
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