What are Activities and Breakouts?

Attendees can collaborate in real time on a shared Google Doc (or any file sharing service), watch a video, and view uploaded material – all while the organizers monitor their progress and provide guidance. Organizers can even split attendees into smaller groups (called "breakouts") for separate discussions or activities.

Important: This feature is only available for organizers on GoTo Training Pro and GoTo Training Plus plans. If you're on a corporate Google account, make sure your shared settings are not restricted or locked down.

Before you begin:

Check out our recommended best practices.
Shared materials and breakout rooms are not included in the session recording.
The GoTo Training team is diligently working on these known issues:
- Attendees may need to rejoin the training if they attempt to share their screen while a video is playing during breakouts.
- Mic icons may show incorrect muted/unmuted status.
- The attendee count may be incorrect when returning from a breakout to the main training session.
- The breakout timer may intermittently experience issues.
- The organizer webcam may intermittently get cut off when an attendee joins the main training session from a breakout.

How it works

You can share as much or little content as you'd like during your training (see Activity Types below). You can also break attendees out into up to 50 groups as often as you'd like. If you want the same breakout room for every activity, don't end the breakout. If you want the groups randomly assigned for each activity, end the breakout and start a new one. You can also choose to have attendees randomly assigned to breakout rooms, or you can drag and drop specific people into specific rooms. If a breakout room(s) is used, attendees will experience the following depending on how they have joined the session:

Desktop attendees — A new window will launch attendees into their breakout. Once the breakout ends, they will be taken back to the main room.
Web attendees — These users will be automatically switched to the breakout within the same browser tab. Once the breakout ends, they will be taken back to the main room.
Mobile attendees — Breakouts are not supported for mobile attendees. Users joining from the mobile app will be asked to join from a computer if the organizer starts a breakouts session.
Co-organizers — These users will remain in the main room and can join other breakout rooms as desired.

Attention: Any attendees who join the training while an activity with 2+ breakouts is under way will be launched into the main session rather than being directed into one of the breakouts. Attendees who were promoted to organizer during the session are not launched into the activity and are not able to access the Activity Center page.

Tip: If an attendee needs to get an organizers attention while in a breakout room, they can raise their hand. Organizers can then join the breakout group to answer questions or send a message to all groups at once from the main Activity Center page.

Activity types

GoTo Training offers multiple types of activities for you to choose from, each of which engages your attendees in different ways. You can switch to a new type of activity at any time during the session.

Collaborate on a shared Google Drive file (or any other file sharing program) — Have your attendees work together on a Google Drive file. They can edit it together during the activity, and then you can share the completed file with them after the session. They do not need to have a Google account to participate. See How do I set up and share Google Drive files?
View a video, PDF or image — Stream a YouTube or Vimeo video for your attendees, review a PDF or show an image on their screens. If you select this option, attendees will see the file in the same way that they view a presenter's shared screen. You can pause/resume any videos as needed. If in a breakout room, the attendees will have the ability to pause/resume the videos on their end. View How do I share files?
Break into groups with audio only — Divide your attendees into smaller groups (known as breakouts) for separate discussions. In this case, nothing will be shared on the browser screen for attendees while they chat. Note that this option is only available if you select 2 or more breakouts.
Break into groups with screen sharing — Divide your attendees into smaller groups (known as breakouts) for separate discussions. In this case, desktop attendees will be able to share their screen with the other members of their breakout. Unlike when in the main session, attendees in breakouts won't need to be made the Presenter before they start screen sharing. View How do I share my screen? to learn more. Note that this option is only available if you select 2 or more breakouts, and mobile attendees will not be able to see the shared screen.

Using activities with or without breakouts

When organizers are setting up activities, they will have the option of keeping all attendees together or splitting them up into small groups.

Activities with all attendees — Launch your activity with the entire group of attendees participating in the same activity together. To use this option, you can select "Everyone" from the drop-down menu when setting up your activity.
Activities with breakouts — Instead of keeping all attendees together to participate in an activity, split them up into smaller groups called "breakouts" (up to 6 breakouts available). In this case, attendees will be launched into the activity in their respective breakout groups.
Note: Desktop and web attendees must be running Google Chrome in order to join activities that use breakouts.