Zoom breakout rooms: the tried and true method by which in-class, small group discussions are replicated in cyberspace. They’re virtual meeting spaces where ideas are seamlessly exchanged, and the discussions they facilitate are always moving, lively, and characterized by intellectual rigor. At least, that’s what my TF told me! In reality, Zoom breakout rooms are terrible at getting students to talk about readings and P-sets, but they’re also one of the main ways that we manage to stay connected to the broader Harvard community while we’re scattered across the globe.
For the uninitiated, Zoom breakout rooms divide large groups of people on a video conference call into much smaller groups of two to three people. The idea behind dividing students into breakout rooms is to give them an opportunity to discuss class materials such as readings, lectures, and p-sets so that a greater number of students are able to engage with the material. Sometimes, breakout rooms work great. Students ask and answer important questions about the course material, discuss things they found challenging or interesting while struggling through homework, and after having those discussions, return to the main room ready to share valuable insights with the rest of the class. Much more often though, breakout rooms fail to live up to this utopian ideal. Darius Atefat-Peckham ’23 said, “If the teacher is gone, they’re generally silent or joking around or making small talk which is fine. Like I don’t mind, but I don’t think it’s as productive as teachers think.”
I’m sure we’ve all had bad experiences in breakout rooms ranging from non-productive to downright awkward. Discussions in breakout rooms that focus on course material can often feel forced and artificial. According to Ryan Kim ‘23, when students are divided into breakout rooms, “usually everyone speaks at once then says nothing, or no one says anything.” Kim’s quote highlights one of the major issues with breakout rooms and virtual discussions in general: the lack of social chemistry. Because all our interaction is virtual this year, there are very few opportunities to talk to and get to know other students outside of and during class. In addition, breakout rooms are usually limited to about 15 minutes maximum, making it impossible to talk about both course materials and what’s happening outside of class. Lack of social chemistry makes it almost impossible to have any sort of productive discussion, and even breakout rooms that manage to stay on task are still relatively “unproductive,” lapsing into awkward silence after every person has contributed a sentence or two to the conversation.
In most courses, it seems that the teaching staff prefer to be hands-off when it comes to breakout rooms. In these courses, the teachers send students away, and then blissfully await their return in 10-15 minutes’ time. These are the courses where breakout rooms are likely the least “productive” from an educational standpoint but allow for the greatest degree of socialization. Sometimes teachers prefer to monitor breakout rooms to ensure that what’s going on is “productive” and the students are staying on task. Usually, in these situations students are having a good conversation before the teacher enters the room, but then everyone becomes uncomfortably silent when they see the instructor’s name pop up on the screen. These sorts of check-ins usually end up doing more harm than good, derailing whatever conversation was happening, whether it was productive or not.
The worst breakout rooms are those in larger lecture courses that break students into random groups. This set-up makes for a situation in which students are always interacting with a brand new set of their peers with no opportunity or time to get to know each other. Instead of placing students into random breakout rooms each class, some courses have opted to place students in the same group of people for breakout rooms each week. Marlee Masters ‘23 said, “some of my classes are doing this thing where you’re always in a breakout room with your section mates, and honestly that’s a hundred times better than [being with] random strangers … the more you know you’re going to have to keep engaging with people, the more you are likely to cooperate with them.”
Often, the most congenial breakout rooms are the least “productive,” and even the most impersonal, on-task breakout rooms aren’t as “productive” as they might seem. But, this doesn’t mean that we should get rid of them altogether! Let’s face it, no one wants to spend their free time socializing on Zoom. Because of that breakout rooms are one of the few ways that students have been able to keep in touch with their peers and meet new people during this period of social isolation and remote learning. Staying on task in a breakout room might yield a quotable insight that you can spit out when you return to the main session, but getting sidetracked tends to be much more meaningful. When we get sidetracked and talk about our lives outside of class, we’re making up for all the avenues of communication that we’ve lost in the transition to a Zoom-based world. Even if you’re not convinced that socialization for its own sake is important, think about how allowing students the time to catch up and socialize can have a positive impact on the classroom dynamic. Students who are more comfortable with each other as people are going to be more comfortable speaking up in class and giving their honest opinions and critiques on the course material. Even mundane small talk allows students a greater understanding of their classmates, and getting rid of breakout rooms altogether would cut out the last avenue of informal communication that exists in Zoom world. So no, breakout rooms are not the greatest teaching tool of the 21st century, but they’re a valuable part of virtual learning, allowing students a valuable opportunity to get to know each other, commiserate, and unwind on Harvard’s time.
Cade Williams ’23 (cadewilliams@college.harvard.edu) thinks breakout room small talk is important!