Improving Engagement Via Breakout Rooms.

One of the primary ways used to teach students when schools are closed due to the coronavirus is by using some sort of video conferencing program.  It is admitted that using video conferencing programs can sometimes make it more difficult to have students gather in smaller groups to work on specific questions or problems.  Fortunately, there is something called a breakout room that allows students to gather in smaller "rooms" to do collaborative work.  

A breakout room is a smaller room where students are sent to do their group work.  If one is using zoom, this is fairly easy to do because breakout rooms are an inbuilt part of the program. The person setting up the meeting needs to enable the breakout room feature before trying to open any.  Furthermore, one can assign students to breakout rooms ahead of time so the teacher does not need to do it during class time.  The teacher, who is the host, is the only person who can set up the breakout rooms. If the meeting is being recorded locally, the conversation in each room can be recorded but if the recording is being done in the cloud, only the main room can be recorded.

Unfortunately, not every school uses Zoom, some use Google meet for class and it does not have an inherent feature allowing for breakout rooms.  I've heard Google is working on adding the ability to create breakout rooms but I've not heard they did it.  Fortunately, there are ways to work around this by creating several other hangout rooms labeled as breakout room 1, breakout room 2, etc.  Then create a google doc with all the links to the various breakout rooms so when it is time to split up, students can click on the link and head off to the smaller room.  

The other way to do breakout rooms in Google meet is to download one of two  extensions for the chrome browser.  The first is Google Meet Plus which allows people to create breakout rooms but everyone who is going to participate via this extension must have it installed on their computer.  In addition, the basic version is free but the Pro version requires a monthly fee.  It has received a four star rating based on 189 reviews.

The second one is Google Meet Breakout Rooms and allows the teacher to create breakout rooms based on nicks, can be viewed in tile or tab format, allows people to be pre-assigned or done during class, allows the host or teacher to broadcast video and audio to all rooms at the same time, integrates with Google classroom and quite a few other features.  The only person who needs this extension installed is the teacher. Students may download it if they want but it is not necessary for students to participate.  The person who created this extension recommends teachers try it out with friends first because there is a bit of a learning curve.  This extension has received a four star rating based on 69 reviews.  

You may be wondering what are some ways you can use breakout rooms in math.  Breakout rooms are great for small group work, jigsaw activities, turn and talk, think, pair share, or working together on problems where each person has a different problem but the same answer.  Any think you do in class in small groups, can be done in breakout groups.

Breakout rooms help increase student engagement in distance classrooms.  Think about using it if you need to teach by distance.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.