EdTech Connect

Zoom Breakout Rooms Options (EdTech Connect: August 2022)

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by: Randy Spears

If you want to use Breakout Rooms in Zoom, you have three options. This brief article will explain those three options and the pros and cons of each one:

Assign Automatically
This, by far, is the easiest option. It randomly disperses your participants into different rooms. It is best for impromptu breakout rooms while you’re in a meeting and want your participants to intermingle. Once set up in a single instance of a meeting, the participants will return to the same group throughout that individual meeting. (To create different arrangements in the same meeting, you will need to use the Recreate function.)
PROS: Easy to set-up. Great for creating interaction among your participants.
CONS: You can’t control who is in what room. Not good for pre-arranged teams.

Manually Assign
This option allows you to manually assign participants to different rooms
PROS: Gives you control over who goes where.
CONS: Very cumbersome to assignment participants to breakout rooms with a large group.

Pre-Assigned
This option is the best if you have pre-assigned teams in Carmen. You can set these up, either manually in Zoom or use a CSV (spreadsheet file) to make your room assignments for your Zoom meeting.
PROS: Ensures that participants enter their correct pre-assigned rooms in Zoom.
CONS: Does take time to set up and participants MUST log into Zoom with their OSU credentials.
EXAMPLE format for CSV for Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms

Instructors that want to use breakout rooms in Zoom extensively, should set up a test-run session with Randy Spears (spears.4)

Three Start-Up Tips for Carmen and a Great Start to the Semester (EdTech Connect: August 2022)

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by: Kiela Matthews

With semester about to begin, here are three suggestions to organize your content in Carmen to better suit your students:

  1. Consider using Modules as the main way to present your course content to students. Modules allow you to organize content by week, by resource, or by type. You can also create assignments, pages, discussions, etc., directly from the Module window, making it more efficient for you to create course content.
  1. Clean up your Navigation Menu in your course – Removing items from the menu that are not in use, or that do not need to be used by students, can guide you and the students on where to go in the course. No more aimlessly clicking around to locate assignments.
  1. Utilize the Syllabus page from the Navigation Menu. The Syllabus page is another area to place your syllabus, it also includes a Course Summary that lists all assignments, in chronological order by due date, so the students can see what is to come in the weeks ahead.

If you want to meeting to discuss ways to improve your Carmen course, please feel free to contact me, at matthews.517@osu.edu