Breakout groups are a powerful engagement tool for active learning in a synchronous session, providing private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat for small group collaboration. Instructors can distribute files with breakout groups, and pull those files back into the main room for sharing with the entire class. 

In Collaborate, breakout groups were typically created with random student placements to the groups or manual placements by the instructor with an optional setting to allow students to switch groups. With this new integration, however, instructors will be able to use their existing groups in their Blackboard courses to quickly create and launch breakout groups in Collaborate. As needed, instructors can adjust groups while maintaining the original placements.