Hi,

Does anyone have some excellent advice or links for best practice when having to use breakout rooms in Teams with guests? I have a new challenge up my sleeve ...

So far, I have found out that participants disconnect from the chat in the main room, so sending instructions this way (as you can do in Zoom) is off the table. You can't prepare any contents for the breakout room either, or can you? So, what do you do to make sure that attendees in breakout rooms have the instructions they need?

For collaboration, you have to send participants an external link via main room chat and make sure they get there before they switch into the breakout room. Links sent via room announcements aren't clickable. Or can they somehow activate apps, f. e. a whiteboard app like https://www.whiteboard.chat/, in the breakout room to collaborate? Guests can't use the Microsoft whiteboard.

I still have to test more options, but any advice would be more than welcome.

Best regards,

Susanne

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Replies

  • Hi Susanne,

    REALLY good question! 

    With regards the chat, this is to do with channel versus non-channel meetings, explained here: https://atlas.utdallas.edu/TDClient/30/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=300

    If you can solve that, it will help a lot with the breakouts. 

    With regards the pre-setup, you are right, it's NOTHING like Adobe Connect where you can set up all sorts of amazing things ahead of time! So you are right, it's doing stuff before the breakout when everyone is together.

    We tend to either go super simple old school of "just chat, make a few notes and someone summarises to the group in the debrief" or do something with a tool such as Padlet/Mural/Miro/etc, get them on there together, then put them in breakouts.

    This has the added advantage of we can see their output, even without being in the breakout rooms and hearing the conversation. 

    I'm interested to hear what others think, and whatever approach you end up with, as I'm sure it will be innovative :D

    Teams Meetings vs Channel Teams Meetings
  • Hi Jo,

    Well, I can rest this case ... my customer has decided that the trainers I have to train have to do their job in Zoom. Reason: The trainers (acting as subcontractors for my customer) wanted to use the Teams versions of their employers to train my customer's customers (vocational trainees all over Germany) while acting in their own name, not their employers. Sounds complicated? It is ... and it's also a massive privacy problem. 

    So now I have to find out why the pan function doesn't work with Zoom's new whiteboard as soon as you share it with participants in a Zoom meeting ... 

    Cheers,

    Susanne

    • So much of our job is beyond the training bit! Glad there's a resolution, even if it brings up more challenges!

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