Webex Breakout Sessions For Jigsaw Activities - Baharin

HOW TO USE WEBEX BREAKOUT SESSIONS FOR JIGSAW ACTIVITIES

What is Jigsaw Activity?

The jigsaw activity is a cooperative learning activity in which students teach each other new things in
small groups. The groups are given a comprehensive assignment, and each group member becomes an
expert on a small portion of that assignment. Students are responsible for learning the content from one
another. Through this learning strategy, each student acts as a piece of the puzzle, learning a chunk part of
the overall assignment. After each student has taught what he/she knows to the other group members, they
have together learned the overall assignment and completed the jigsaw or puzzle. In a jigsaw group, all
students have equal importance, as they all must work together to learn the entire concept.

The general steps to create a jigsaw activity are as follows:
Step 1: Divide students into groups of 4 to 6 people per group
Step 2: Divide content into 4 to 6 parts.
Step 3: Assign one part of the content to each student in the Home Team, study their part independently.
Step 4: Students meet in Expert Team, discuss and compare their ideas.
Step 5: Students return to Home Team, take turns presenting their part of content.
Step 6: Assess all students on all the content.

A jigsaw method can be successfully applied to nearly any topic, provided that students have received
enough instruction and have access to the materials necessary to become the expert in the group. A huge
benefit of this type of learning activity is that students are each held accountable for a particular part of
the lesson and are able to assist each other along the way and practice active listening skills.

How to Create Breakout Sessions in Webex.
In online learning, jigsaw activities can still be incorporated into the session. A teacher or an instructor
may plan the activities and carry them out using available online medium. One of the online mediums can
be Webex, which is free and available to us at UTM. The Webex platform can be used to set up multiple
breakout sessions for multiple student groups. The following is a step-by-step guide on how to create the
breakout sessions.

1. Enable Breakout Sessions (In Meeting)
● Select the Breakout tab and choose Enable Breakout Sessions
● Once enabled, Enable Breakout Sessions will appear with a check mark and the button will
appear at the bottom of the menu bar.

2. Create Breakout Sessions and Assign Students to the Sessions
1. Select the Breakout Session tab and choose Breakout Session Assignments
2. A dialog box, Create breakout sessions, will appear.

3. Select the number of breakout sessions required and how to assign the students either
automatically, manually or students can choose any session.

4. By default, the breakout sessions are named as Breakout session 1, 2, 3...

5. To rename the breakout session, hover over the name, click Rename, then enter a new name.
6. To start the breakout sessions, click Start breakout sessions.
7. Ask the students to join the session according to the part of the content that has been assigned to

them. The teacher can also select who is in each room by manually entering their names. These
sessions will be the Expert Teams.
8. Give time for students to discuss and collaborate. The teacher can join different breakout sessions
to monitor student progress.
9. You can set a timer and duration for the breakout sessions at Settings.
10. After the students have finished discussing in Expert Teams, ask them to leave the sessions and
go to the main room.
11. Rename the sessions to Home Team and ask the students to join their Home Team in the
breakout sessions.
12. Give time for students to share and take turns presenting their part of content in the Home Team
sessions.
3. Leave a Breakout Session
● Click the red icon door in the menu bar and choose Leave Session.
● You can also choose the Breakout tab and choose Leave Session

4. End Breakout Sessions
● Teacher can end all the breakout sessions.
● Click the red icon, End all breakout sessions, at the bottom of the breakout sessions dialog box.

5. Broadcast a Message
● Teacher can send a message to the students in all
breakout sessions.
● Click the Broadcast icon, choose the required
session, type the message and click Send.

Lastly, it is time to bring back those engaging jigsaw activities you thought were lost to the world of
online learning. You just need a little preparation and with Webex breakout sessions, anything is possible.

Baharin Mesir,
JSB, SKA, UTM