| name | canvas-morning-check |
| description | Educator morning course health check for Canvas LMS. Shows submission rates, struggling students, grade distribution, and upcoming deadlines. Trigger phrases include "morning check", "course status", "how are my students", or any start-of-day teaching review. |
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-conscious handling: Set
ENABLE_DATA_ANONYMIZATION=true in the Canvas MCP server environment to anonymize supported student identity fields in output. When enabled, names render as Student_xxxxxxxx hashes. This control does not by itself establish compliance.
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:
- Draft and send a message to struggling students (uses
send_conversation)
- Send reminders about upcoming deadlines (uses
send_peer_review_inbox_messages or send_conversation)
- Get detailed analytics for a specific assignment (uses
get_assignment_analytics)
- 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.
