Creating Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms let moderators split participants into smaller groups for focused discussions, workshops, or collaborative exercises. BigBlueButton supports up to 16 simultaneous breakout rooms with flexible assignment options.
Creating Breakout Rooms
As a moderator, you can create breakout rooms at any time during a meeting to divide participants into smaller working groups.
Click the gear icon above the participant list to open the options menu.
Select Create breakout rooms from the menu.
In the form that appears, configure the following settings:
- Number of rooms — choose between 2 and 16 rooms.
- Duration — set the time limit for the breakout session in minutes.
- Participant assignment — choose how participants are distributed (see below).
Click Create to start the breakout rooms.
Assignment Options
When creating breakout rooms, you can choose from three different methods to assign participants to rooms:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Random | BigBlueButton distributes participants automatically and randomly across the rooms. |
| Manual | The moderator assigns participants to rooms using drag-and-drop in the creation form. |
| User selection | Participants choose which room to join on their own. |
Customizing Room Names
Each breakout room has a default name that you can customize. Simply click the name field for any room in the creation form and type a new name. This helps participants identify the purpose or topic of each room.
Assigning Presentations to Breakout Rooms
You can optionally assign a specific presentation to each breakout room. The presentation must have been uploaded to the main room before creating the breakout rooms.
Upload all required presentations before creating breakout rooms. Each room can receive a different presentation for its specific task or topic.
Additional Options
- Capture shared notes — when enabled, shared notes from breakout rooms are transferred back to the main room after the session ends.
- Capture whiteboard — when enabled, whiteboard activity in the breakout rooms is recorded.
Permissions in Breakout Rooms
All participants in breakout rooms automatically receive moderator rights. This means everyone in the group is on equal footing — any participant can become presenter, upload files, and manage the whiteboard.
When breakout rooms are started, all assigned participants receive a prompt in a new browser tab asking them to join the room.
Chat messages, whiteboard drawings, and shared notes from breakout rooms are lost once the rooms close. Remind participants to export important content before time runs out.