Boosting student engagement and fostering genuine discussions can be a significant challenge. Like many instructors, I experienced the common pitfalls of traditional discussion forums: students often posted minimal, last-minute responses, or simply "lurked" without truly engaging with the material or their peers. Even in-class discussions were often dominated by a few vocal students, leaving others on the sidelines and limiting the diversity of perspectives. This uneven engagement hindered the deep, meaningful conversations essential for developing critical thinking and application skills in my ORG3310 course, an undergraduate core course in Human Resource Management (HRM).

To address these challenges, I sought a more interactive and student-centered learning environment. Breakout Learning, an AI-powered platform designed to shift traditional discussions into dynamic, team-based experiences, offered a compelling solution. My core idea was to shift from passive asynchronous forums to real-time voice interactions. My experience using this platform has shown how its AI-driven analytics and structured activities can move students beyond passive participation to create truly collaborative learning experiences in hybrid or fully online courses.

How to Employ Breakout Learning in Your Course

Designing Custom Discussions
Each week, I created discussion prompts tailored to that week’s topic. These weren't generic prompts, but structured, collaborative exercises such as debates on HR policies, brainstorming future trends in recruitment, or analyzing real-world case studies. While it took some upfront effort, it allowed for deeper engagement with core HR concepts and helped students connect theory to real-world challenges. I found that the flexibility of the platform made it easier to design discussions that felt relevant and discipline-specific. For example, I designed a multi-segment activity where students first identified problems with an existing system, then they practiced a related skill in a role-play, and finally worked together to create a new solution. This ability to build a discussion with progressive steps can transform a single topic into a dynamic learning experience.

Integrating Multimedia Resources
To enrich the discussions and bring in a range of perspectives, I embed relevant multimedia resources—readings, podcasts, and videos—directly within the platform for students to engage with as pre-work. This allowed students to come prepared and grounded the conversation in a shared understanding.

Facilitating Structured Interactions
Instead of posting individually in a forum, students engage in live, spoken online discussions (see Student Feedback quotes at the end). These peer-led conversations are structured, guiding small groups of students through a series of questions or simulated exercises. This approach, inspired by the Socratic method and scenario-based learning, ensures everyone has the opportunity to contribute. It moves beyond passive reading and encourages a deeper level of engagement as students actively debate ideas and apply relevant concepts in real-time.

Leveraging AI for Personalized Feedback & Insights                                            
After each discussion, students received immediate, individualized feedback reports assessing the quality of their contributions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. This personalized feedback helps them reflect on their performance, identify areas for improvement, and refine their critical thinking and communication skills (see Student Feedback quotes at the end). 

Utilizing Student Q&A Summaries                 
One key benefit is that the platform compiles end-of-discussion questions into summary reports, helping me quickly spot confusion and adapt my teaching to support student learning more effectively.

Automated Assessment Support 
The platform offers flexible automated scoring. The AI can provide a score based on the quality of a student’s contributions, but the instructor can also incorporate other data points like attendance, completion time and quiz scores to create a more comprehensive assessment. While I review all grades and adjust them as needed, this feature streamlines the assessment process and provides transparent insights into student performance.

Conclusion

Integrating Breakout Learning into my course has significantly increased student engagement and fostered deeper critical thinking. The platform's ability to create a more inclusive, engaging, and collaborative learning environment has transformed what were once passive interactions into dynamic, structured dialogues. While designing tailored prompts requires initial effort, the ability to customize discussions, combined with the AI-driven feedback and instructor analytics, has made a profound difference in my classroom. This experience has reinforced my belief that the most impactful discussions are a result of intentional design and active facilitation, where the technology used can play a role in guiding the learning process.

Student Feedback on Breakout Learning:

“Breakout learning is the most unique thing I've ever done in any class” 

“Real time discussion is far more engaging than forum posts” 

“I found it most valuable to be able to actually speak to other classmates in real time. You are able to have more of a discussion and go back and forth with each other. We cannot do that in the Moodle forums.”

“Don’t force students to talk even if they have nothing to say" 

"I don’t like being graded by AI"

References and Resources

Brunton, R., MacDonald, J., Sugden, N., & Hicks, B. (2022). Discussion forums: A misnomer? Examining lurkers, engagement and academic achievement. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 38(5), 27-44.

Fehrman, S., & Watson, S. L. (2021). A systematic review of asynchronous online discussions in online higher education. American Journal of Distance Education, 35(3), 200-213.

Onesi-Ozigagun, O., Ololade, Y. J., Eyo-Udo, N. L., & Ogundipe, D. O. (2024). Revolutionizing education through AI: a comprehensive review of enhancing learning experiences. International Journal of Applied Research in Social Sciences, 6(4), 589-607.

About the Author

Hanna Kalmanovich-Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Department of Management & Marketing. Her academic interests include employee well-being, power dynamics, and remote work, and she is always looking for innovative ways to enhance student engagement in her courses. She presented this idea at the 2025 Teaching & Learning Symposium. She teaches introductory classes in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management as well as advanced topics like Managing Total Rewards and Negotiations. Outside the classroom, Hanna practices negotiation daily—with three kids keeping her on her toes. She loves traveling and making the most of family time.

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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