Breakout rooms on Teams - just why??

[SirChenjins]

If you are one of these people who uses them during your training, can you stop please. Getting randoms who've never met each other to join together and work on something they have literally just been introduced to and so know nothing about is lazy teaching and utterly, utterly pointless - no-one is sure what they've to discuss, they're don't learn from others who are as clueless as they are, it's bloody awkward, there's so much wasted time as everyone looks blankly at each other, and actually, they're attending the session to learn from the person who knows the subject.

I've just left another session at the breakout rooms point and have decided I won't attend another one ever. It's very liberating!

Literally my OP - Getting randoms who've never met each other to join together and work on something they have literally just been introduced to and so know nothing about is lazy teaching and utterly, utterly pointless - no-one is sure what they've to discuss, they're don't learn from others who are as clueless as they are, it's bloody awkward, there's so much wasted time as everyone looks blankly at each other, and actually, they're attending the session to learn from the person who knows the subject.

What you described wasn't that.

Hate it whether virtual or real life.

Virtual people sit there for a while being polite, no one wants to be seen as bossy, everyone forgets the brief, then the trainer ‘pops’ into the room to ask how it’s going, invariably to be faced with a wall of blank faces.

In real life, it seems to take a good 10mins to allocate ‘the scribe’, then it’s an opportunity to catch up and chat with a colleague you last saw a year ago and have a natter. Then the trainer wanders over and says ‘how are you getting on, are you writing on the sheet’, when they well know we’ve not started and begrudge having to do it. Then everyone throws a few points out so it’s over as quickly as possible to get back to more interesting conversations with personal catch ups, gossip from other departments, shitty politics etc.

I really hate it when people are like ‘ooh, I laughed out loud’ but I really DID laugh out loud at your disappointment in the real use of ‘breakout rooms’ and completely agree!

I've not actually described what I teach or how I teach.
I stand by the issue being the actual trainer, not the tool.
Breakout rooms can be used effectively in all kinds of training but they need to be used appropriately.

We'll have yo agree to disagree - using the tool in the specific scenario I described and in that way does not lend itself well to meaningful learning.

Every online training I'm on always seems to involve at least 4 breakout room sessions for a whole day. I hate them too. I find them less painful if:

Clear and specific instructions are given for the task by the trainer
Groups are not too small - at least 5 people in a room
Shorter sessions, 5 - 10 minutes tops
Groups being mixed up throughout the day
Not necessarily having to nominate a person from each group to feedback after...feels like filler, and it always ends up being the same person doing it

The decision to use a breakout room in that scenario was taken by the trainer. They don’t happen automatically.
The person delivering the training is responsible for designing the session and it sounds like they’ve not done a good job. It’s poor use of the tool by the trainer, not the fault of the tool itself!

But my point is that it's used in so many training sessions in this way - it wasn't a one-off this morning and it seems to be used more and more as a gap filler by trainers who are looking for an easy way out of teaching the whole session (or the vast majority of the session). I agree with @Mortima - used sparingly in that way they can be bearable (just), but if Gustav from Oslo knows as little about the subject then I do, sticking us in a room together with several others and asking us to spend 40 minute working through a set of questions relating to a subject we're new to is pointless - the whole reason for us given up part of our busy working day (and often paying for the session) is to learn from the expert, not other novices. It doesn't advance our learning.

I understand your point but I don't think you are understanding mine. These issues are not the fault of Teams or the breakout room function.
There still needs to be a human choosing to use them in their training. This is a trainer problem not an issue with Teams as a teaching and learning tool.

Agree! I once did one where it was pairs, and the other woman said to me "I'm very busy" and switched her sound and camera off until the main group came back 😂

ha ha lol they are rubbish aren't they. They rarely know how to work it properly so someone goes astray or they can't bring oneteam back. Complete waste of time!

But of course - that's how Teams and its functions works. It's human driven, and in my OP I asked the people using them to stop in that way - not Teams to stop providing the functionality.

Good for that woman!

You seemed to disagree with me earlier when I said was a trainer problem not a Teams issue 🤷🏼‍♀️

They can be a very effective tool if they’re used the right way. Crap teachers will produce crap training regardless of the method and tools being used.

I hate these too. The worst is when it automatically chucks everyone back into the main session when someone is in the middle of a sentence.

No, I disgreed with them being effective in the situation I described in my OP which is why I posted. I stand by that.

There have been times where I've pretended my Teams app is glitching and I've turned off my camera and mic just before we get put in the break out rooms.

Then a few minutes afterwards I'll turn them back on "I'm so sorry, did I miss the whole break out rooms session? Oh, what a shame."

Only when I know it's going to be a waste of time and I have nothing to contribute to a break out room discussion.

It just saves a lot of awkwardness.

That is annoying!!
I always give my participants a warning that I’m about to bring them back!

Nearly as bad as those online 'breaks' that consist of a waterfall video

My life

We use these for conferences but ensure that there are staff or speakers in each room and they’re usually at breaks. We are a small professional body so people tend to know people anyway so I think it’s less awkward.

And that’s the result of a poor trainer not planning the session effectively or giving a clear and meaningful task for you to do.

Same. I have been known to leave the meeting too! I can go and watch a YouTube video that tells me more about the subject than Gustav can.

Luckily I (well, my employer) didn't pay for the session today but I'll be feeding back that spending a third of the session in a breakout room with other complete novices wasn't effective.

She did give us a clear task - I explained that in a pp. However, as we were all new to the subject it wasn't an effective way of learning because our existing knowledge base was too limited. I see this so often in training - which is why I posted (as I've said). Short 5-10 minute sessions to focus on a specific task, fair enough (although I still dislike them), providing everyone knows enough about the subject in question to make meaningful contributions.

Jeez. How I loathe the term 'breakout room'. Some years ago I worked for a call centre (not on the phones thank God, in finance) and there was a room set aside where the call centre teams could go when it was their allocated 15-minute break. It was truly awful in there. Backstabbing bitchfest doesn't go anywhere near covering it.

Since then I have avoided breakout rooms like the plague.

Then, like I've said, it's a trainer issue and the task wasn't appropriate.
It's an example of poor teaching.