GCU study guides, course by course
GCU's online courses run one at a time in compressed blocks with a distinctive weekly rhythm: discussion questions requiring an initial post plus participation replies across multiple days, weekly assignments graded on detailed rubrics, and recurring CLC (Collaborative Learning Community) group projects. The participation requirements mean you can't batch a week's work into one sitting — showing up across the week is graded.
GCU courses use a three-letter prefix joined to a number with a hyphen — CWV-101, MAT-144, UNV-104. Some nursing courses carry a V or VN suffix (like NRS-429VN) marking the online RN-to-BSN versions.
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UNV-103 — University Success
UNV-103 is GCU's first-year success course, covering study strategies, time management, academic resources, degree planning, and the basics of GCU's learning platform and writing expectations. It's where new students learn the discussion-and-rubric rhythm the rest of their program runs on.
UNV-104 — 21st Century Skills: Communication and Information Literacy
UNV-104 combines first-year success skills with communication and information literacy: finding and evaluating sources, GCU writing style, and producing structured academic work. The signature assignments are a scaffolded essay built across the course and exercises using the GCU library.
Theology
Mathematics
MAT-144 — College Mathematics
MAT-144 is GCU's general-education math course for non-STEM majors, covering practical quantitative skills — percentages, financial math, statistics basics, and modeling — through online homework and applied projects. The course is known for its Excel-based major assignments built around real-world budgeting scenarios.
MAT-274 — Probability and Statistics
MAT-274 is GCU's full probability and statistics course — descriptive statistics, probability distributions, correlation and regression, and hypothesis testing — required in nursing, science, and analytics-leaning programs. Homework runs through an adaptive platform, with benchmark projects applying inference to real data sets.
Philosophy
PHI-105 — 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
PHI-105 teaches critical-thinking fundamentals — arguments, fallacies, credibility, and problem-solving — with a persuasive essay scaffolded across nearly the entire course as its centerpiece. Topic selection, outline, first draft, peer review, and final revision each land as separate graded milestones.
PHI-413V — Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making in Health Care
PHI-413V grounds nursing and health-care students in biomedical ethics from a Christian worldview: moral status, ethical principles, spiritual assessment, and end-of-life decision making. A core course in GCU's RN-to-BSN program, it's built around case-study analyses applying the frameworks to clinical situations.
English
ENG-105 — English Composition I
ENG-105 is GCU's first-year composition course, building academic writing through a sequence of essays in different modes with required drafts, peer review, and revision. It establishes the GCU-style formatting and rubric-driven writing expectations that every later writing assignment assumes.
ENG-106 — English Composition II
ENG-106 is the second composition course, centered on argumentation and research writing: building a researched argument essay through staged drafts with scholarly sources and GCU-style documentation. Many sections run the whole course around one extended argument developed and refined week by week.
Biology
BIO-201 — Anatomy and Physiology I
BIO-201 is the first half of GCU's anatomy and physiology sequence — cells and tissues, the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems — with a lab component. It's a cornerstone prerequisite for GCU's nursing and health-science pathways, and the grade matters for competitive program admission.
BIO-202 — Anatomy and Physiology II
BIO-202 completes the A&P sequence: endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems, with lab work continuing throughout. Like BIO-201, it's a heavily weighted prerequisite for GCU's nursing and health-science programs.
BIO-220 — Environmental Science
BIO-220 examines human impact on natural resources — ecosystems, water, energy, populations, and pollution — as a popular lab-free science option for non-science majors at GCU. The course leans on applied exercises like ecological-footprint assessments and environmental surveys alongside the standard discussion-and-assignment rhythm.
Nursing
NRS-429 — Family-Centered Health Promotion
NRS-429 (often listed as NRS-429VN online) is a core course in GCU's RN-to-BSN program, covering health promotion and disease prevention across the lifespan with a family and community focus. Major work includes a family health assessment built on functional health patterns and a CLC group project on health promotion.
NRS-430V — Professional Dynamics
NRS-430V is the entry course of GCU's RN-to-BSN program — a bridge for working RNs returning to formal education, covering nursing theory, professional accountability, the evolution of the profession, and the case for BSN-level practice. Typical work includes a nursing-theory presentation and papers on contemporary practice.
NRS-434 — Health Assessment
NRS-434 (commonly listed as NRS-434VN online) covers health assessment across the lifespan — children, adults, and older adults — within GCU's RN-to-BSN core. Assignments apply developmental frameworks and assessment techniques to specific age groups, alongside the standard discussion-and-rubric rhythm.
NRS-428 — Concepts in Community and Public Health
NRS-428 (often listed as NRS-428VN online) shifts the RN-to-BSN lens from the bedside to the community: epidemiology, vulnerable populations, and health promotion at population scale. Major work includes an epidemiology paper on a communicable disease, a community teaching plan, and documented indirect clinical practice hours.
Psychology
PSY-102 — General Psychology
PSY-102 surveys psychology's major areas — research methods, the brain, learning, development, personality, and disorders — and serves as a social-science general-education option and the gateway to GCU's psychology and counseling programs. Weekly work follows the standard GCU pattern of discussions, quizzes, and short papers.
PSY-255 — Personality Psychology
PSY-255 surveys the major theories of personality — psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive — as a core course in GCU's psychology program. Signature work includes theorist-comparison assignments, a humanistic personality analysis presentation, and a benchmark research paper.
Management
Accounting
Marketing
Sociology
History
Health Sciences
HLT-302 — Spirituality and Christian Values in Health Care and Wellness
HLT-302 examines spirituality, personhood, and Christian values as they bear on health care and wellness, serving health-science and pre-health students across GCU's programs. The best-known assignment is the Spiritual Needs Assessment benchmark, alongside weekly discussions and worldview-application papers.
HLT-362V — Applied Statistics for Health Care Professionals
HLT-362V teaches statistics as health-care professionals actually use it: descriptive statistics, sampling, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, regression, and reading the statistical sections of published research. It's a core requirement in GCU's RN-to-BSN and health-science pathways, typically run in the compressed online format.
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