Frequently Asked Questions

The GCU portal houses student account information. From here, you can change your personal information, access your LMS classroom, view your financial information, access your student email, and much more!

Once you have been accepted to GCU as a student, you should receive a welcome email with your account information. It is recommended that you first setup authentication options and reset your password to a personalized password. Once you have set up your account, you can log in with your GCU email address and password at gcuportal.gcu.edu.

You can update your information by changing it in the GCU portal. To update your information in the GCU portal, see the My Information section of our Navigating the GCU Portal article.

You can access your student email through a link in the GCU portal, or directly at outlook.office.com. For more information, see Accessing Your GCU Email.

All current, active students are able to download Microsoft Office 365 through GCU Outlook email. Office 365 Apps for Education includes products like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; essential programs for succeeding in your educational goals. For a step-by-step guide, see Free Microsoft Office 365 Apps Installation.

Halo | Learn is an online learning platform that allows students to access all of their course material, assignments, and instructor contact information. Each class that you take will have its own environment with forums and course materials. You will be able to access classes in Halo | Learn up to three days before the course start date and for up to six weeks after the course ends.

For information about accessing your Halo classroom, please see Accessing Your Halo | Learn Classroom. If you are having problems accessing your NEST course, please contact your Field Experience Counselor.

Halo supports Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari. Please make sure that your browser is up-to-date to avoid any compatibility issues with Halo or our GCU site.

The Citation Report system is used to detect plagiarism in academic papers. Not all papers require a Citation Report, but many do. For more information about the Citation Report system, please see our LopesWrite article.

To submit a paper to LopesWrite, create a new attempt and then select Send for Report beneath the Similarity Report heading. For more information about submitting assignments in Halo | Learn and using the Citation Report system, please see the following article:

• (Halo | Learn) Submitting Assignments

GCU Technical Support cannot provide any guidance for the LopesWrite similarity score. We recommend reaching out to your instructor for specific requirements regarding your similarity percentage.

For more information or assistance with citations and paraphrasing, please contact Institutional Effectiveness (602-639-8901) or the Library (602-639-6641).

If there’s a different name you prefer to go by, contact your Student Services Counselor (SSC) and request to have that name added to your account as your “preferred” name. Once your SSC completes this process, your display name in Halo will change as well.

Our licensing agreement with our eBook publishers allows you to print one (1) copy of the eBook for personal use.

Currently, tablets and smartphones are unable to download our PDF eBooks, therefore, most classes will have a Web Viewer option to open your eBook in a supported browser. For more information about reading your eBooks through the Web Viewer, take a look at the article, Reading Your eBooks Through the Web Viewer.

For more eBook FAQs, see:

• Evolve/Pageburst
• Getting Started with eBooks