Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation is here! Learn more at the Blackboard Learn Ultra Transition webpage.

Prospective Students: Check out our viewbook!

Encourage Student Engagement by Using Breakout Groups in Blackboard Collaborate

Are you concerned that your synchronous Blackboard Collaborate session isn’t as engaging for your students because there are too many participants?  Why not use Breakout Groups during your Collaborate session? 

Breakout Groups allow you to facilitate small group collaboration by creating smaller collaborate rooms 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).

You can leverage these breakout groups to:

  1. Encourage engagement
  2. Address specific topics of interest
  3. Allow for mental breaks for the presenter
  4. Create a memorable experience

Blackboard Collaborate gives you some specific and powerful tools to help moderate the breakouts. As the instructor, you can:

  • Create/assign breakout groups
  • Share files to breakout groups
  • Set timers for breakout groups
  • Save files from breakout groups 

For more on Breakout Groups, visit https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Moderator/Moderate_Sessions/Breakout_groups