Setting up breakout groups for a scheduled Teams meeting

Transcript

hello I'm James Clark from the department of physiology at King's College London and in this short tutorial I'm going to show you how you can set out virtual breakout groups or breakout discussions within Microsoft teams without the members of those discussion groups being part of any team arranged for the meeting so for instance a scenario might b... Read More

Key Insights

• 👥 Virtual breakout groups in Microsoft Teams allow for individual discussions within a meeting without participants being part of a specific team.
• 👥 To set up breakout groups, create chat groups and add participants' names prior to the meeting.
• 👥 During the meeting, search for the chat group names to activate separate meetings for each breakout group.
• 🤙 Participants can have video calls and discussions within the separate meetings, then return to the main meeting when needed.
• 👥 Multiple breakout groups can be created and managed during the meeting, enabling simultaneous discussions on different topics.
• 👥 The process of setting up breakout groups in Teams involves creating chat groups, adding names, and initiating separate meetings.
• 😤 This method provides a practical solution for organizing breakout sessions without the need for participants to be part of a specific team.

Questions & Answers

Q: How do you set up breakout groups for a scheduled Microsoft Teams meeting?

Before the meeting, create a named chat for each breakout group and add the intended participants. During the meeting, search for a group’s name, open its chat, and click the video-call button to start a separate meeting with those participants.

Q: Can you create Teams breakout discussions without adding participants to a team?

Yes. The tutorial uses named group chats to organize separate discussions without making participants members of a team arranged for the main meeting. This also works when an ad hoc meeting was publicized through a Teams link rather than individual invitations.

Q: How do you create a named breakout-group chat in Teams?

Open Chats, click New chat, and use the drop-down box on the right to give the group a name. Add the participants, click in the new-message field without typing anything, and the named chat will appear as a draft.

Q: When should Teams breakout-group chats be created?

Create the discussion groups before the main meeting begins. Preparing the named chats in advance lets you find and activate them during the meeting.

Q: Can you prepare more than one breakout group?

Yes. The tutorial creates two example groups named Fizz 101 and Fizz 102. You can repeat the same chat-creation process for any other groups you wish to set up.

Q: How do you activate a prepared breakout group during the meeting?

Go to the search menu and enter the name of the prepared chat, such as Fizz 102. Open the matching group, then click the video-call button to call the people in that chat into a separate meeting.

Q: How do participants return from the separate call to the main meeting?

While participants are in the separate meeting, their original meeting is temporarily paused. They can go back by clicking the unpause or return-to-meeting button.

Q: Can the organizer move between different breakout discussions?

Yes. Because the organizer initiated the chats, they can move between the different groups during the breakout session. They can speak with each group independently or return to the main meeting.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• This tutorial teaches how to set up virtual breakout groups in Microsoft Teams for ad hoc meetings.

• To create breakout groups, set up chats in Teams prior to the meeting and add the desired participants.

• During the meeting, search for the chat group names to activate the separate meetings and have video calls with specific participants.