1. To post your initial reply to a discussion question, start by selecting Submit DQ Response for the appropriate discussion question.
   
   NOTE If you see a button that says View DQ Response instead of Submit DQ Response, that means that the instructor has already graded the discussion. You can reach out to your instructor if you need the discussion question to be reassigned.
   
2. Enter your response in the text box provided. You can format your responses using the toolbar, check out the FAQ section below for more information. If you’d like to attach a file, such as an image or document to your response, you can do so by clicking Add Attachment and then selecting your document. For a list of supported file types, please see the Invalid File Type Error in Halo | Learn article.
3. If you would like to preview how your post will look, click Preview.
4. Once you are ready to submit your reply, click Submit DQ Response.
   
   
   
   NOTE Halo | Learn has an auto-save feature. If you start a reply but don’t finish it, the information you entered will remain available until you return to that discussion question.
5. After submitting your response, you’ll see the submission page once again with the status of your submission, as well as a timestamp for when your response was submitted.
6. Your response will now appear in the discussion thread. To navigate to the discussion thread, click Go To Discussion. You can also close the submission window by clicking the x in the top right corner.
7. In the discussion thread, your response will be highlighted in yellow, and a star will be visible next to your name. This will make it easier to differentiate your post from your classmates’ posts when navigating through the posts. Responses are ordered by when the post was made, with the most recent post located at the top. You can also click Review Submission to be taken to your initial post.

All posts within a specific discussion question forum can be expanded or collapsed using the Posts Navigation window on the left side or expanding posts beneath the Discussion Description. Responses in the Post Navigation section are indented to help you identify which student and post you are responding to. Responses can also be expanded / collapsed individually using the downward facing icon to the left of any post. 

1. To reply to a classmate’s post, select the Reply button from the bottom right corner of their response.
   
   
2. Enter your response in the text box provided. If you’d like to attach a document to your response, you can do so by clicking Add Attachment at the bottom of the textbox, and then selecting your document. Once you are ready to post your reply, click Post.
   
   
   
   NOTE Halo | Learn has an auto-save feature. If you start a reply but don’t finish it, the information you entered will remain available until you return to that discussion question.
3. Your response will appear below your classmate’s post and will be indented slightly.
   
   

If you notice a mistake immediately after posting your reply, you may be able to edit it. However, you will not be able to edit your reply if:

• Your post has been graded by the instructor
• Your post has been marked as substantive for participation
• A student or instructor has replied to your post
• The post was made over 24 hours prior

1. To edit a post, start by clicking the three horizontal dots to the right of the post. Then select Edit. If your post isn’t easily visible, you can locate your post using the Post Navigation menu on the left side of the forum.
   
   
2. Make any corrections necessary, and then select Update.
   
   
3. The time stamp at the top of the post will change to the time you made the edit. Your instructor will only be able to see the time of your edit, not the time you initially made the post.
   
   

If you post a reply to another student and wish to delete the reply, you have the ability to do so. However, you will not be able to delete your post if:

• Your post has been marked as substantive for participation
• A student or instructor has replied to your post
• The post was made over 24 hours prior

1. To delete a post, start by clicking the three horizontal dots to the right of the post. Then select Delete. Alternatively, you can locate your post using the Post Navigation menu on the left side of the forum.
   
   
2. A notification will appear to confirm that the post should be deleted. If you’re sure that you want to delete the post, click Delete.
   
   
   
   NOTE Your post cannot be recovered once it is deleted.

Some courses may require a certain amount of substantive discussion post replies per week. Instructors can mark replies as substantive or not substantive in the discussion forums. This mark will appear under the reply text and will show as green (substantive) or gray (not substantive).

When there are unread posts in the discussion forums, Halo will provide you with a notification icon next to the Discussion Forums tab in the navigation menu.

Upon accessing a forum with unread posts, you can locate the unread post by using the filtering options in the top right corner of the page. Check the box next to the appropriate filter option and then select Apply Filters.

Marking a post as read will remove the notification for the post. To mark a post as read, click the Unread button in the top right-hand corner of the post. The button will change to a grey Read button. You can select it again to change it back to Unread status.

All faculty have the ability to add more discussion forums to a class. These forums, however, don’t have a point value and are not treated as assessments.

1. Go to Discussion Forums from the navigation bar on the left-hand side.
   NOTE Instructor added discussion questions will not appear on your Halo Calendar.
2. Select the instructor added discussion forum
3. Click Reply to Discussion
4. Type your response in the space provided and click Post
5. Your post will be highlighted in yellow in the discussion thread with a time stamp of when you posted.

If you receive any errors, such as the “Error---An error has occurred” error, when trying to post a reply, check to see if your post has any emojis or hyperlinks. While these elements don't always cause issues, depending on how they are formatted, they could result in an error. If you've copied and pasted an emoji, try removing it. If you've copied and pasted a link into the text box, try inserting it using the hyperlink button instead.

There may be instances where a DQ requires a response which incorporates programming code or similar language; as a result, you may encounter an error when trying to post the response. To fix this, make sure to add /* to the beginning of the code and */ to the end of the code. This will ensure that the code does not interfere with Halo and produces an error message.

Additionally, if you get the error “Your request was not completed due to changes in the existing content. Please refresh and try again” while trying to post a DQ edit, this means that the instructor graded the DQ at the same time. If you refresh your page, you’ll be able to see the grade you earned. However, you will not be able to edit your DQ posts anymore. If you want to make changes to the response, please reach out to your instructor to have the DQ reassigned.

Hyperlinks will allow you to add a clickable link to an external website or to a library page.

1. To create a hyperlink, highlight the text that you would want to become clickable. Then click on the Hyperlink button.
   
2. A popup will appear that you can add a link, title, and change how the link opens. Paste your link into the URL field.
   
3. After adding the link, select Save and the hyperlink will be added to your response.
   

 

You can format your responses in multiple different ways such as adding bolded text, italicized text, underlined text, strikethrough your text, superscripted text, and subscripted text.

• To bold, italicize, underline, or strikethrough your text, select the appropriate button on the text box before writing your text. You can also highlight your text and select your formatting after the fact.
  
  
  NOTE You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts to Bold, Italicize, and Underline your text:

  	Windows	Mac
  Bold:	CTRL+B	CMD+B
  Italicize:	CTRL+I	CMD+I
  Underline:	CTRL+U	CMD+U

• To superscript or subscript your text, click on the exponent icon and select whether you want your text superscripted or subscripted. Once selected, the text you type will be superscripted or subscripted.
  
  
  NOTE To stop typing in a superscripted or subscripted, select the exponent icon again and deselect superscript or subscript.
• If you would like to change the alignment of your text, select the alignment icon, and select the type of alignment that you want to use. You can select either align left, right, center, or justify.
  
• If you would like to separate parts of your response with a horizontal line, select the horizontal line icon.
  

Halo can also save your formatting if you’re pasting text from another site or app, such as Word. When you copy and paste text that was already formatted, Halo will keep that formatting. To clear the formatting, highlight the pasted text and then select the Clear Formatting icon.

Remember, you can also paste as plain text by using CTRL+SHIFT+V or CMD+OPTION+SHIFT+V if you’re on a Mac. For more details, see our article Using Copy and Paste.

Halo’s textbox gives you the ability to add lists into your responses. To create a list, select the list icon and select the type of list you want, either bulleted or numbered.

Halo also has built-in special characters that you can enter into your responses. To enter a special character, select the special character option and select the symbol that you would like to use.

Emojis can also be added into your responses using the emoji icon, however, emojis are generally deemed unprofessional for academic writing.

If you would like to add a table to show your data, the textbox will allow you to add a table.

1. To add a table, click on the table icon in the toolbar.
   
2. Select the table drop-down to open the table options.
3. To choose the size of the table that you want to insert, select Table. You’ll see a grid that you can use to select the number of columns and rows that you want to be added.
   
4. Once you select the size of the table, your table will be added to the response. You can then edit the table settings to adjust the formatting of your table, add, or remove, rows and columns.
   

There might be a time where you want to embed images or other forms a media into your responses. To add images or other media resources to your responses, check out the appropriate section below.

Inserting Images

1. To start inserting images into your response, click on the image icon on Halo’s text box.
   
2. There are two ways you can insert an image into your responses. First, you can insert an image by using an image link you found online.
   • To insert an image via the image’s link, ensure you’re on the General tab and paste your link into the Source field then select Save. After loading, your image will be inserted into your response.
     
     
     NOTE If your image isn’t loading, we recommend downloading the image and uploading it instead.
3. The second option is inserting an image by uploading it.
   • To insert an image via upload, select the Upload tab on the left side of the popup.
     
   • You can then Browse for an image to select your image for upload. 
     
   • Once you’re done, you will be brought back to the General tab. Click Save to insert your image.
     
   • Now that the image has been inserted you can adjust the size by clicking and dragging on one of the four corners.
     

Inserting External Media

You can also add external media like a YouTube or Vimeo video into your responses.

1. To insert external media, find a link for the media that you would like to use and copy it.
2. Once you have your link copied, click on the media icon in the toolbar.
   
3. Next, paste the link into the Source field and select save.
   
4. Your media will now be added to your response.
5. Now that the media has been inserted you can adjust the size by clicking and dragging on one of the four corners.
   

The discussion question textbox has a built-in spell checker that you can utilize to ensure your spelling is accurate. To use the spell checker, click on the spell checker icon. The spell checker will show you your misspelled word(s) and show you suggestions for how to spell it properly.

You can also adjust the language by clicking the spell checker drop-down.

There are also additional tools that are available to help make sure you can add everything to your responses in the proper format.

• You can add block quotes by selecting the block quote icon in the toolbar.
  
  After you finish typing the block quote, click the icon again to exit the block quote.
• If you would like to add code to your responses, you can use code snippets. code snippets can be entered by clicking on the Code icon.
  
• You can also enter code samples into your responses. These are different than code snippets because it will allow you to select a coding language and the textbox will highlight your variables, methods, data types, etc. appropriately depending on the language you selected.
  
• There might be a time where you need to locate a certain word or phrase in your response. You can use the find and replace tool to find what you are looking for and replace it with new text.
  
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