Every course gets a study community, an AI tutor and its support team, from day one.
CircleIn sets up each course automatically from your school's data. Students sign in with their school credentials and land in the right place, with the right people, without anyone building groups by hand.
From the first day of class to finals week
Day one: already in the class chat
Students sign in with single sign-on and find every enrolled course waiting, each with a section chat and a course-wide chat. No invites, no hunting for the right GroupMe.
Week two: questions pick up
Instead of emailing the professor "where do I start?", students ask classmates or the AI tutor, which coaches them through the assignment using the professor's own materials.
Any night: stuck at 3 a.m.
Someone in the course-wide chat is usually up studying the same material. Notes, flashcards and study guides shared in any section reach students in every section.
During the day: instructors and SI leaders step in
SI leaders and tutors run sessions inside the course, including built-in video study sessions. Faculty see where the class is stuck and get alerts when students report they're struggling.
Before exams: practice and planning
AI practice questions, flashcard games, a study planner and shared study guides help students prepare. Effort earns points students can redeem for rewards.
Everything a course needs to study together
Section and course-wide chats
Two circles of support, created automatically: the student's section, and every student at the college in the same course.
Course-mapped AI tutor
Coaches step by step on the assignment in front of the student, scoped to what the professor has activated.
Shared notes and study guides
Collaborative documents students build together, or keep private, with view and edit permissions.
Flashcards and practice
Review, quiz and game modes, plus AI-generated practice questions in multiple formats.
Anonymous questions
Students can ask without their name showing, which lowers the barrier to asking for help.
Video study sessions
Built-in video for SI sessions, tutoring and study groups, without sending students to another app.
Struggle alerts
Optional check-ins notify instructors and SI leaders when students report they're stuck or can't find answers.
Study planner
Board, list and calendar views to break work into tasks and stay ahead of deadlines.
Points and rewards
Studying, sharing and helping classmates earn points students can redeem, which keeps participation going all term.
Why not a free group chat, or a general-purpose chatbot?
Students already use both. Here's what changes when the study space belongs to the course and the college.
| CircleIn | Free group chat apps | General-purpose AI chatbots | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mapped to the student's course and assignments | Yes | No | No |
| Only students enrolled in the course | Yes, via school sign-on | Anyone with the link | No classmates at all |
| Coaches without doing the work | Yes, by default | Answers get passed around | Optional modes students can switch off |
| Faculty see where students struggle | Yes | No | No course-level view |
| Moderated, school-sanctioned space | Yes | No | No |
| SI leaders and tutors in the same space | Yes | Only if they join each group | No |
| Published outcomes at partner schools | Yes | No | No |
No setup required. A few minutes makes it work.
Courses and rosters come from your school's data, so faculty don't build anything. Usage climbs when professors take a moment to introduce it.
- Mention CircleIn in class and post it in your LMS and syllabus
- Give students a few warm-up questions to ask the AI tutor
- Count AI tutor practice toward participation; when it's part of the grade, usage reaches 80 to 100 percent
- Point "where do I begin?" emails to the tutor first, then office hours
Copy-paste for your course announcement
"Stuck on a problem? Before emailing me, try CircleIn: ask your classmates in the course chat, or work through it with the AI tutor. It won't do the work for you, but it will help you learn it. If you're still stuck, bring your attempt to office hours."
Questions IT and academic leaders ask
Does CircleIn work with our LMS?
Yes. CircleIn connects to your LMS, including Canvas, Blackboard and D2L Brightspace, through LTI 1.3. Students sign in with your school's single sign-on (SAML), and courses and rosters come from your LMS or a CSV data feed. Where your school enables it, the AI tutor can draw on assignments and course materials from the LMS.
Who can get into a course's chats?
Only students enrolled in that course at your school, signed in with school credentials, plus the support staff their professor adds. Each student sees their own section chat and the course-wide chat for everyone at the college taking the same course. Professors can add TAs, supplemental instructors or section-specific tutors to support students in class on CircleIn.
Is student data protected?
Your college owns its data, and we delete it whenever you ask. CircleIn is FERPA compliant and has a completed HECVAT ready for your IT and security review. Data is hosted on AWS in the U.S. and encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). Student inputs and faculty materials are not used to train AI models, institutional data is not retained in AI processing, and faculty materials are never shared with other schools or professors. Faculty can turn the AI tutor off for their course at any time.
Is it accessible?
Yes. CircleIn substantially conforms to WCAG 2.1 AA, confirmed by a third-party accessibility audit in January 2025. A VPAT is available on request.
What do faculty have to do?
Nothing to get started; access is set up automatically for faculty and students. A short in-class introduction and a participation incentive are what drive the highest usage.
Is there a cap on AI tutor use?
No. Students get unlimited AI tutoring, with no token or usage limits.