Create a Breakout Room Note Taker in Google Slides (+ FREE TEMPLATES!)
If you’re looking to facilitate online collaboration during virtual or hybrid instruction, try using Google Slides to create a Breakout Room Note Taker. Simply drop the link in your Zoom/Google Meet chat, have students work on their assigned group’s slide, and monitor activity using the Grid View in Google Slides. Voilà!
How It Works:
Create a new slideshow in Google Slides (or save time & download my template below!). Add student directions and discussion prompts to the first slide. Create an additional slide for each individual breakout room.
Make a copy of the slideshow to share with students. You’ll want one for each class period, along with a blank copy that you can reuse for future discussions.
Click the Share button in the top corner and set your link sharing permissions to “Anyone with the link can edit.” This is the link you’ll share with students in your Zoom/Google Meet chat.
Send students to breakout rooms and have them respond to the discussion prompts on their group’s assigned slide.
Use the “Grid View” in Google Slides to monitor breakout room activity (see screenshot above). This makes it easy to see what each group is up to and which groups may need additional prompting.
Get the Templates
Click the button below to download the note taker templates in this post. This will launch the slides as a view-only preview. Then, click the blue “Use Template” button in the top right corner to add it to your Google Drive.
Other Collaborative Discussion Options
Google Docs is another easy option for collaborative discussions. I generally prefer using Google Slides over Google Docs, though, because if there are too many people on a Google Doc, you can sometimes feel like you’re getting “bumped into” when people are typing above you. In Google Slides, students are working in small groups on their assigned slide only, so things just don’t feel as crowded from an end-user perspective.
Google’s Jamboard is another popular option for online collaboration. If you’re doing a quick activity and don’t really need to account for who wrote what, Jamboard is a great choice.
Since Jamboard additions are anonymous and there’s no revision history, it may not be the best option if you’d like to hold students accountable for their contributions or are worried about students accidentally deleting others’ content. Still, make sure to check out Jamboard if you haven’t already because it’s a super helpful and versatile tool.
I’m also a big fan of Padlet for collaborative activities. You can post a few prompts and have students respond to the prompts by adding their own notes and images. The free version of Padlet is somewhat limited, but still worth checking out. If you’re new to Padlet, click here to get a free Padlet with my referral link.