Moderators can split attendees into groups and send them into their own virtual rooms for discussion. When breakout groups are started, all of the attendees are able to use all the features in a breakout group regardless of their role in the main room. All members of a breakout group can:
When a moderator ends the breakout groups session, all attendees return to their previous roles and are subject to the participant permissions set in the session. See the earlier part of this guide, 'Managing the session' for more details about controlling participant permissions in the main room.
There are three methods of group assignment; random assignment, custom assignment and course group set. These are useful in different circumstances. For sessions linked to a NILE course, it is possible to create groups on NILE to re-use within multiple Collaborate sessions. Please see our guidance on creating groups in NILE for further details if you do not yet have course groups set up in NILE.
Navigate to the Share content section of the Collaborate panel, represented as an arrow icon.
Select the Breakout Groups option located under the heading 'Interact'.
When Random assignment is chosen in the first pop-up menu, participants are allocated evenly across the number of groups you specify. Collaborate will suggest a number of groups automatically. Change the number of groups using the drop-down based on the group sizes you would like, e.g. choose 7 groups in a session with 70 participants for groups of 10.
It is possible to include moderators in the group allocation with the checkbox. Doing so will again spread the moderators evenly throughout the groups.
All moderators can switch groups. You can also allow participants to switch groups by checking the box.
The shuffle option provides a quick way to jumble participants until you are happy with the random assignment.
The participants are shown in the groups they will be allocated.
It is possible to manually move individual participants to a different group by dragging and dropping the student name from the group list.
Once you are happy with the breakout group assignment, click the Start button at the bottom of the panel.
With the Custom assignment option selected in the first pop-up menu, all participants remain in the main room until you allocate each individual to a particular group. While this can be useful for small cohorts, it can become time-consuming in sessions with a large number of participants. Please consider either random assignment for large cohorts, or setting up groups on NILE to work with the same breakout groups in multiple Collaborate sessions.
All moderators can switch groups. You can also allow participants to switch groups by checking the box.
Select Custom assignment from the Assign Groups options.
Collaborate will provide you with a number of groups based on the number of participants in the session. Use the plus signs to add more groups.
Drag and drop a student name from the main room to assign them to a particular group.
Alternatively, use the contextual menu next to a student name to assign a group. This method can prove quicker where there are a larger number of participants.
Click the Start button at the bottom of the panel to begin the breakout session.
When using Collaborate sessions accessed via a NILE course, a further group assignment option is available. The Course group set option links through to the associated NILE course and looks for groups previously created on that course. Any existing course groups are then available to choose from for group assignment. This is extremely helpful for instances where ongoing group work is involved and saves a lot of time compared to the other two assignment options above. Please see our guidance on creating groups on NILE if this is something that interests you but you have not used groups in NILE before.
Select Course group set from the Assign Groups options.
A popup window will appear in order to connect with the NILE course.
Select the group set you wish to work with from the dropdown list.
NOTE: Participants need to have already joined the Collaborate session to be assigned into the groups. Repeat this step if you need to update the group members during a session.
Once the Start button is pressed, all users will be moved to the relevant group. A message will be displayed onscreen while the move is in progress, telling each participant which group they will be joining.
All moderators can move between groups by default. Participants can also move between groups if it has been enabled by the moderator when starting the breakout groups. See the section 'Splitting attendees into groups' for details on the location of this option.
Go to the Attendees panel which is represented by an icon of two silhouettes.
The attendees list is split into the groups chosen when starting the breakout groups.
Each group name has an icon next to it with an arrow and a door symbol. Select the icon to enter that group.
To move again, select the icon next to another group, or return to the main room in the same way.
As a moderator, you can share files with groups from the main room while breakout groups are in progress. You can share one file to all groups, or distribute different files between select groups.
Ensure you are in the main room and go to the Share Content section of the Collaborate panel in the bottom right of the screen.
Select Share Files and navigate to the list of files in the main room or upload one now.
Select the menu next to the file you wish to share and choose Share with groups.
Tick the checkboxes to either share the file with all groups or individual groups.
Use the Share Now button to display those files in the selected breakout groups.
When breakout groups are in progress, each group has its own chat channel and all participants can also see the 'Everyone' channel.
As a moderator, you can select the everyone chat to send a message to all attendees in their groups. This can be helpful to let participants know how long they have left within the breakout groups, for example.
When the breakout session is finished, ending the breakout groups will return all attendees to the main room.
Select the stop icon from either of the following locations:
A message will be displayed to all participants stating that they are being returned to the main room. Once they rejoin the main room, all previous main room permissions for chat, audio, video, and drawing will apply.