What's unique about CircleIn?
Developed through a grant through the National Science Foundation, CircleIn (CI) was built on the science of peer-led learning. CI is a mobile app that’s available 24/7, providing a place for students to study together online at any time of day or night. CircleIn fosters an interactive community where students can actively support each other's learning and development, creating a strong sense of belonging in various course formats—whether in-person, hybrid, or fully online.
CI provides one place for students to chat, create and share flash cards, post class notes, ask questions, share videos, DM each other, create quizzes, study using an AI Tutor – all in a mobile app. Students can also provide weekly feedback on what they’ve learned or may not understand. This feedback goes directly to their instructors as part of their instructional strategy.
CircleIn also incentivizes engagement through a point system that rewards students for sharing knowledge, tackling challenging problems, and collaborating with classmates, thereby providing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for them to contribute to each other’s unique learning journeys. Students can then convert these points into gift cards. For faculty, the platform delivers valuable insights into student study behaviors without adding to their workload, enabling them to identify and address learning gaps effectively.
OUR CASE STUDY: A look at our 2023-2025 CircleIn pilot project
The university needed an innovative solution that could build on existing supplemental instruction (SI) support and bridge the gap between limited resources and the growing demand for flexible, accessible academic support. This presented an opportunity for USC to pilot a new approach to student support, one that could potentially serve as a model for other large institutions facing similar issues in the rapidly changing landscape of higher education.
We did the research.
The data shows that students who use CircleIn perform better in their academic courses in comparison to students who never use CircleIn. Investing in CircleIn as a campus-wide app was predicated on the positive results observed during the two-year pilot program.
[Chart] Active users and low users of CircleIn passed these courses at a higher rate than students who never used the CircleIn app.