Breakout Rooms

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As BigBlueButton spreads one of the features we're increasingly asked to 
implement is breakout rooms.  See

  https://groups.google.com/d/msg/bigbluebutton-users/GNrf2W3redk/j65vpz3jQdMJ

The feature should enable the teacher to

  1.  Group students 
  2.  Assign the groups to separate rooms (each room is now a distinct BigBlueButton session)
  3.  Monitor the activity
  4.  Bring everyone back to the same main room

The breakout rooms could have a shared chat with the main room.

At the moment, other features (such as record and playback) are a higher 
priority than breakout rooms, but it is our intent to implement them as part of 
our roadmap to BigBlueButton 1.0.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ffdixon@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2012 at 12:17

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 617 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2012 at 12:25

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Issue 719 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2012 at 12:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 827 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2012 at 12:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 828 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2012 at 12:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We continue to get requests for breakout rooms; however, this is not a small 
enhancement as it affects both client and server.

No plans to implement in 0.81, but it is on our road map to 1.0.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 23 Jun 2012 at 1:14

• Added labels: Component-Client

[GoogleCodeExporter]

One of the key features I see missing is the "support" channel where you remove 
an attendee from the main conference room and bring them into a private 1-2-1 
conversation.  We use this all the time for support, private voice questions 
where attendees don't want to be exposed before their peers, and for 
collaborative hands-on lab work where the attendee needs some guidance on a lab 
and you don't want to disturb the whole class.   

This would be similar to break out rooms, but you should be able to select one 
or more attendees and move them into a private room dynamically.  

The logic we currently have in our application (Live Meeting plus Asterisk) is 
we right-click on the attendee, and select one of 10 private conferencing 
rooms.  It will then drag the person selected and the moderator/instructor into 
the private room in one click.  To return everyone to the main conference you 
just close the private room.  

Original comment by geoff.nordli@gmail.com on 24 Jul 2012 at 4:51

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi Goeff,

Thanks for your feedback.  It's another good use case for breakout rooms.  
We're well into the development of BigBlueButton 0.81.  Once we complete this 
release, we'll revisit the priorities for the next release.  For more 
information, see

   http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#When_will_feature_X_be_implemented

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 24 Jul 2012 at 10:50

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 1305 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 9 Sep 2012 at 11:27

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I wanted to jump in on Breakout rooms.  I agree this can add nd enhance 
collaboration in any activity.  I like the concept of:
1. Allow BBB to Auto disperse student in to an presenter determined # of 
breakout rooms.  e.g.  Presenter has a class with 20 students, he wants 4 
breakout rooms, so he set # of rooms to 4, and Auto.  BBB places 5 participants 
in each room.
2. Presenter sets up the # of rooms, then allows participants to place them 
selves in rooms.  (presenter gets to watch and gain insight as to why they 
chose specific rooms, teams etc.)
3. Presenter selects the number of rooms, then moves participants to the room 
he chooses. 

VOIP follows participants to the rooms, and the presenter(s) can move 
themselves in and out of rooms as needed. 

Presenter can make an Announcement - Which is heard by ALL breakout rooms.

Breakout room content is Saved and can be viewed/shared back in the main room. 

Presenter can assign a Breakout room leader, to facilitate the Breakout room, 
managing users permissions, or All participants can have full permissions.

Original comment by randyt...@gmail.com on 14 May 2013 at 4:11

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the feedback!  We'll be doing breakout rooms as part of a future 
iteration of BigBlueButton.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 14 May 2013 at 5:10

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When will breakout rooms be available?

What is the current work around--my teaching designs REQUIRE breakouts?

hrwebb@att.net

Original comment by h...@nyu.edu on 22 May 2014 at 3:06

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We plan to have breakout rooms for a future release of BigBlueButton.  We tend 
focus on one release at a time, so we can't give you a date for a future 
release.

For the moment, the workaround would be to define multiple rooms in the LMS, 
such as

  Breakout Room - 1
  Breakout Room - 2
  Breakout Room - 3
  Breakout Room - 4

and during the class, have users open a new tab and join the breakout rooms 
(but still be connected to the current room).  

  A student can be logged into multiple BigBlueButton sessions at once.  In the main room, a student can mute their microphone so the main room participants don't hear the activity in the breakout room.

  Once time is up, students can return to the main room (or, if your using Sakai, you as the teacher can end all the breakout sessions from the Sakai interface).

We realize this isn't true breakout rooms, but it does work in a pinch.  We 
will implement breakout rooms in a future version of BigBlueButton.

Original comment by ffdixon@gmail.com on 22 May 2014 at 10:54