Live Session Breakout Rooms

Split group live sessions into timed breakout rooms for focused interaction and independent practice.

Who this is for

Teachers leading group live sessions who want to divide their students into smaller, temporary groups.

What this page answers

How do I start and manage breakout rooms during a live session?
How do timers and extensions work?
What happens to audio and video when students are in breakout rooms?
How do students return to the main room?

Prerequisites

An active Group live session
At least two students present in the session

Breakout rooms allow you to temporarily separate students into distinct virtual spaces. While in a breakout room, students can only see and hear the other participants assigned to their specific room.

To start a breakout room:

Open the Participants or Breakout Rooms panel in the active live session.
Select Start Breakout Rooms.
Choose how to divide the students (e.g., automatically evenly distributed or manually assigned to specific rooms).
Set the duration for the breakout session (e.g., 5 minutes, 10 minutes).
Click Start.

Students will be automatically moved to their assigned rooms and a countdown timer will appear.

Breakout room configuration dialog showing participant assignment and duration settings

Audio, video, and chat isolation

Media playback (audio and video) and text chat are isolated within each breakout room. Students will only hear, see, and chat with the people in their own room.

Managing time and monitoring

Once a breakout session is active, a countdown timer is visible to everyone. As the teacher, you have full control over this timer and can monitor the rooms:

Switching rooms: You can jump between active breakout rooms to observe students, answer questions, and guide discussions.
Extending time: If students need more time, you can add additional minutes (e.g., +2 minutes, +5 minutes) to the active timer without disrupting their work.
Ending early: If the task is finished ahead of schedule, you can click End Breakout Rooms to immediately close all rooms.

Active breakout room controls showing the countdown timer, the Extend button, and the End early button

Returning to the main room

When the countdown timer expires, or if you end the breakout session early, the breakout rooms will automatically close. All students will be smoothly transitioned back into the main live session room, and their audio and video connections will be restored to the main group.

Notes for school-wide staff

Billing: Breakout rooms run on the same infrastructure as the main live session. Time spent in breakout rooms is billed at your organization's standard real-time audio/video rate.
Recording: If the live session is being recorded, recording follows your organization's defaults (typically, only the main room is captured). Contact Locuto support for custom recording topologies.