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Using Breakout Groups in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Overview ............................................................................................................................. 1
Creating Breakout Groups ................................................................................................ 1
Randomly Assign ....................................................................................................................... 1
Custom Assignment .................................................................................................................. 2
Course Group Set ...................................................................................................................... 3
Starting, Pausing/Resuming, Monitoring, Ending Breakout Groups ........................... 4
Starting Breakout Groups ........................................................................................................ 4
Pause and Resume Breakout Groups .................................................................................... 4
Share Files with Breakout Groups........................................................................................... 5
Monitoring Breakout Groups ................................................................................................... 5
Ending Breakout Groups .......................................................................................................... 5
Save Files from Breakout Groups to Main Room ........................................................... 6
Overview
To facilitate small group collaboration, you can create Breakout Groups that are
separate from the main room and assign attendees to them. Breakout Groups have
their own private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat. Any
collaboration that takes place in a group is independent of the Main room (and other
groups).
Breakout Groups are designed for group collaboration. Every Attendee in the group is
a Presenter. This means that all Attendees can share the files, whiteboard, screen,
applications, and chat with the rest of their group.
You can create up to 20 groups. Breakout Groups are available only in sessions with
250 or fewer attendees. There is no limit to the number of Attendees you can assign to
each group.
Creating Breakout Groups
Randomly Assign
You can change how many attendees are in each group. Select the number of groups
from the Number of Groups menu.
If you do not like how the Attendees are grouped, select Shuffle Attendees.
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Custom Assignment
To assign Attendees:
• select the Attendee options menu opposite their name and select the group, or
• select the Attendee and drag them to a group.
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You can add more groups by selecting Create a New Group.
Course Group Set
Start breakout groups with the groups already created in your Blackboard Learn
course. Use your existing course groups to create breakout groups in advance and save
time.
When you start a breakout group, go to the Assign Groups menu and select Course
group set. Choose the set of groups you want to use and start the breakout.
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Starting, Pausing/Resuming, Monitoring, Ending
Breakout Groups
Starting Breakout Groups
Once you are satisfied with the number of groups and allocation of attendees,
press the Start button.
Pause and Resume Breakout Groups
After groups have started, you may occasionally want to gather all the attendees
together in the main room without losing the groups already created. And then
subsequently put the, back into their groups again.
To do that, Pause and Resume buttons will allow you:
• Pause: put breakout groups on standby and regroup all attendees in the
main room.
• Resume: restart breakout groups and put all attendees into the same
groups.
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Share Files with Breakout Groups
You can share files, with one or more breakout groups.
1. After starting breakout groups, select Share Files.
2. Open the File options menu of the file you want to share.
3. Select Share with groups.
4. Choose the groups you want to share the file with.
5. Select Share Now.
Monitoring Breakout Groups
As a Moderator, you can drop in on Breakout Groups, one at a time, by pressing the
Join icon next to the Group Name.
To leave one Group and join another, press the Join icon for another Group from the
Attendees panel.
You can leave all Groups and move yourself back to the Main Room by pressing the
Join icon for the Main Room.
Ending Breakout Groups
Give your attendees a warning that you will be ending the Breakout Groups soon.
This gives them time to take a screen capture, or make a note in some other way, of
what they were working on within their groups.
When you want to stop Breakout Groups and bring everybody back into the Main Room,
select End Breakout Groups. You can find this at the top of the Attendees panel or
beside Breakout groups in the Share Content panel.
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After you select End Breakout Groups, all Attendees move back to the Main Room
automatically. Allow a few seconds for them to reconnect before continuing.
Save Files from Breakout Groups to Main Room
After ending Breakout Groups and before leaving the session, you can save any files
shared in Breakout Groups to the Main Room Files area. They will appear below the
Main Room Files in the Share Files area of the Collaborate panel.
Click on the Breakout Group name to view its files.
Press the Options icon to the right of a file and select Move to Main Room Files.
The group file will be saved to the Main Room and can be used again.
Attendees panel
Share Content panel
