Canvas Morning Check Agent Skill

Canvas Morning Check

A comprehensive course health check for educators using Canvas LMS. Run it at the start of a teaching day or week to surface submission gaps, students who need support, and upcoming deadlines -- then take action directly from the results.

Prerequisites

• Canvas MCP server must be running and connected to the agent's MCP client.
• The authenticated user must have an educator or instructor role in the target Canvas course(s).
• FERPA compliance: Set ENABLE_DATA_ANONYMIZATION=true in the Canvas MCP server environment to anonymize student names in all output. When enabled, names render as Student_xxxxxxxx hashes.

Steps

1. Identify Target Course(s)

Ask the user which course(s) to check. Accept a course code, Canvas ID, or "all" to iterate through every active course.

If the user does not specify, prompt:

> Which course would you like to check? (Or say "all" for all active courses.)

Use the list_courses MCP tool if you need to look up available courses.

2. Collect Recent Submission Data

For each target course:

• Call list_assignments to find assignments with a due date in the past 7 days.
• For each recent assignment, call get_assignment_analytics to collect:
• Submission rate (submitted / enrolled)
• Average, high, and low scores
• Late submission count

3. Identify Struggling Students

Call list_submissions to retrieve student submission records, then flag students based on these thresholds:

| Urgency | Criteria |

|---------|----------|

| Critical | Missing 3+ assignments in the past 2 weeks, or average grade below 60% |

| Needs attention | Missing 2 assignments, or average grade 60--70%, or 3+ late submissions |

| On track | All submissions current, grade above 70% |

Use get_student_analytics for deeper per-student analysis when the user requests it.

4. Check Upcoming Deadlines

Call list_assignments filtered to the next 7 days. For each upcoming assignment, surface:

• Assignment name
• Due date and time
• Point value
• Current submission count (if submissions have started)

5. Generate the Status Report

Present results in a structured format:

## Course Status: [Course Name]

### Submission Overview
| Assignment | Due Date | Submitted | Rate | Avg Score |
|------------|----------|-----------|------|-----------|
| Quiz 3     | Feb 24   | 28/32     | 88%  | 85.2      |
| Essay 2    | Feb 26   | 25/32     | 78%  | --        |

### Students Needing Support
**Critical (3+ missing):**
- Student_a8f7e23 (missing: Quiz 3, Essay 2, HW 5)

**Needs Attention (2 missing):**
- Student_c9b21f8 (missing: Essay 2, HW 5)
- Student_d3e45f1 (missing: Quiz 3, Essay 2)

### Upcoming This Week
- **Mar 3:** Final Project (100 pts) - 5 submitted so far
- **Mar 5:** Discussion 8 (20 pts)

### Suggested Actions
1. Send reminder to 3 students with critical status
2. Review Essay 2 submissions (78% rate, below average)
3. Post announcement about Final Project deadline

6. Offer Follow-up Actions

After presenting the report, offer actionable next steps:

> Would you like me to:

> 1. Draft and send a message to struggling students (uses send_conversation)

> 2. Send reminders about upcoming deadlines (uses send_peer_review_reminders or send_conversation)

> 3. Get detailed analytics for a specific assignment (uses get_assignment_analytics)

> 4. Check another course

If the user selects option 1, use the send_conversation MCP tool to message the identified students directly through Canvas.

MCP Tools Used

| Tool | Purpose |

|------|---------|

| list_courses | Discover active courses |

| list_assignments | Find recent and upcoming assignments |

| get_assignment_analytics | Submission rates and score statistics |

| list_submissions | Per-student submission records |

| get_student_analytics | Detailed per-student performance data |

| send_conversation | Message students through Canvas inbox |

Example

User: "Morning check for CS 101"

Agent: Runs the workflow above, outputs the status report.

User: "Send a reminder to students missing Quiz 3"

Agent: Calls send_conversation to message the identified students with a reminder.

Notes

• When anonymization is enabled, maintain a local mapping of anonymous IDs so follow-up actions (messaging, grading) still target the correct students.
• This skill works best as a weekly routine -- Monday mornings are ideal.
• Pairs well with the canvas-week-plan skill for student-facing planning.