Zoom News: Using Polls to Create Breakout Rooms

Zoom News

Wouldn’t it be great if you could send students to specific breakout rooms based on how they answer a poll question? Well, now you can! You can use this new feature in various ways. For one, you can create breakout rooms for different topics and ask participants which one they want to go to by giving them choices in a poll. Another example would be to pose a question based on the academic focus and send students to specific breakout rooms based on how they answer. Hosts can still decide how many participants are placed in each breakout room as well as move or exchange participants after launching the breakout room.

To use this feature, first make sure to update Zoom. Next, you must enable the feature in the Zoom web portal. Log in to the portal and click “settings” (1) from the menu on the left side of the screen. Scroll down to the “In Meeting (Basic)” section (2) of the settings and find the section titled “Meeting Polls/Quizzes.” Make sure the toggle switch for polling is on (3), and then click the box that says, “Allow host to create breakout rooms from poll results” (4).

The left menu of the Zoom web portal, Settings is highlighted with the number 1.The Zoom web portal, In-Meeting (Basic) in the left menu is noted with the number 2. On the right side, the Meeting Polls/Quizzes section has a toggle button, noted with the number 3. A checkbox option, Allow host to create breakout rooms from poll results, is noted with the number 4 and an arrow pointing to it.

 

To set up a poll question with the option to create breakout rooms, follow the directions below.

  1. Access your polls, or create a new one, in either the web portal or from within a meeting.
  2. From the same window where you add poll questions, select the “Create Breakout Rooms” checkbox to create breakout rooms based on a participant’s answer. Note: This feature will not work if you select the option for anonymous answers. Also, it will only work for one question, so if your poll has multiple questions, you must select the “Create Breakout Rooms” box for the specific question you wish to create the breakout rooms from.

The new poll window, a checkbox option, Create Breakout Rooms, has an arrow pointing to it

To Launch the Breakout Rooms from Poll Results:

  1. Once you’ve run the poll, click “End Poll.”
  2. From the Poll/Quizzes results window, click “Create Breakout Rooms.”
  3. Click “Create.”

 

The Zoom poll window with a running poll is displayed. The End Poll button at the bottom right is noted with a number 1 and an arrow pointing to it. The Zoom poll window with a running poll is displayed. A button below the poll choices, Create Breakout Rooms, is noted with a number 2 and an arrow pointing to it.The popup, Create Breakout Rooms, from click the Create Breakout Rooms button is displayed. The Create button at the bottom right is noted with a number 3 and an arrow pointing to it.

For more information, please visit: Creating Breakout Rooms from Poll results