How to Create Breakout Rooms in Digital Samba

Are you looking for a way to make your virtual meetings more effective and productive? Digital Samba's breakout rooms may be all you need! This handy feature lets you split your participants into smaller, focused groups for brainstorming sessions, in-depth discussions, or collaborative tasks. They say there is strength in numbers. But in video conferencing, the power of energetic collaboration lies in small-numbered groups!

This guide will take you through some simple steps for creating breakout rooms in Digital Samba. Get ready to transform your online meetings from flat to interactive and keep your participants engaged and productive!

Table of Contents 

1. What is a breakout room?
2. Benefits of using breakout rooms in your meeting
3. Getting started with Digital Samba’s breakout rooms
4. Conclusion

What is a breakout room?

Breakout rooms are virtual subgroups you can create within your main meeting session. They essentially allow you to break down your meeting into smaller, more manageable discussion areas.

Instead of one giant conference room, you end up with several smaller discussion areas. The host, that's you, controls the creation of these breakout rooms. You can either shuffle participants randomly or handpick specific individuals for discussions requiring their expertise.

Once nestled in their breakout rooms, participants have access to a full suite of collaboration tools. They can chat using audio or video, share screens to showcase ideas, or even launch a virtual whiteboard for brainstorming sessions—all within the secure confines of their assigned room.

This shift to smaller groups fosters a more intimate setting for focused discussions. Breakout rooms become a breeding ground for active engagement, allowing participants to delve deeper into specific topics and collaborate effectively on tasks. Ultimately, they transform your larger online meeting from a unilateral experience to a dynamic and cooperative one.

Benefits of using breakout rooms in your meeting

Traditionally, breakout rooms were reserved for e-learning environments, where teachers oversee student participation in small groups. Using them in an online meeting setting is equally beneficial but for slightly different reasons. It’s less about moderation and more about cooperation. Here's how:

• Boost participation: Big online meetings can feel impersonal and rigid, allowing participants to tune out or shy away from active participation. Breakout rooms are more relaxed and can bring people out of their shells to share ideas and join the conversation.
• Spark creativity: Smaller groups let ideas flow naturally. People can bounce ideas off each other more easily, leading to creative solutions and a wider range of problem-solving approaches.
• Deep dive discussions: Discussing multiple complex topics within a large group is a recipe for disaster. Don’t tackle them one by one in the main room. Instead, split people into breakout rooms according to their expertise in the relevant areas and then circle back once progress has been made.

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Control the embedded video conference with the Digital Samba API

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Getting started with Digital Samba’s breakout rooms

Setting up breakout rooms in Digital Samba is straightforward and intuitive: 

1. Login or create a Digital Samba account if you don’t have one.
2. After logging in, click on the “Rooms” section in the Digital Samba dashboard sidebar. You’ll see the rooms you've created previously, but you can also create a new room.

3. Click on the room for which you want to enable breakout rooms. This will take you to the Edit room screen. Scroll down to the “Breakout rooms” section and toggle the “Enable breakout rooms” switch to enable (or disable) the feature. Optionally, pre-create some breakout rooms. Make sure to click on the “Update Room” button to save the settings.

4. Start your meeting by clicking on the "Join" button. Copy and share your meeting link with the people you want to join the meeting.

5. Within the meeting window, click the Participants icon in the menu bar. This opens the Participants panel containing two tabs: "Main room" and "Breakout rooms". Click on the "Breakout rooms" tab, and then click the "Create breakout rooms" button.

6. Enter the amount of breakout rooms you want. Then, you have two options for assigning participants to the breakout rooms. You can either allow the system to assign them automatically, which randomly assigns main room participants to the breakouts. Or you can do this manually and assign the main room participants to their respective breakouts. Click the “Create” button.

7. At this stage, your rooms have been created. If you opted for manual assignment in the previous step, the rooms will initially be empty. Edit the room assignments, and once you are happy, click on the “Start breakouts” button to launch the breakout session. This will move assigned participants into their breakout rooms.

And there’s nothing more to it! You’re all set to start exploring how breakout rooms can benefit your use case.

Conclusion

Breakout rooms provide the perfect environment for deep discussions, brainstorming, and teamwork. Enhance participation, spark innovation, and achieve better results in your online meetings with Digital Samba's breakout room feature. Just follow the steps above to unlock the full potential of your virtual meetings and keep your team connected and inspired.