canvas-gradebook-audit

name	canvas-gradebook-audit
description	Audit gradebook changes and grade edit history in Canvas. Surfaces who changed which grades, when, and by how much — across a date range or for a specific student. Unique to canvas-lms-mcp (no competitor exposes gradebook history). Trigger phrases include "grade audit", "who changed this grade", "gradebook history", "grade edits", "check for grade changes", or "grade integrity".

Canvas Gradebook Audit

Inspect the full audit trail of grade changes in a Canvas course. Useful for grade integrity checks, accreditation reviews, and catching accidental bulk edits.

Prerequisites

• Canvas MCP server must be running and connected.
• You must have instructor or admin role — grade history is restricted to privileged roles.
• Canvas must have gradebook history enabled on the instance (most institutions do).

Steps

1. Identify the Target Course

Ask the user which course to audit. Accept a course name, code, or Canvas ID.

If unclear, call list_courses to let them select.

2. Choose Audit Scope

Ask the user one of:

• Date range: "Audit grade changes between [start date] and [end date]"
• Assignment focus: "Show all grade edits for a specific assignment"
• Student focus: "Show all grade edits for a specific student"

Default to the past 30 days if no range is given.

3. Retrieve History Days

Call list_gradebook_history_days with the course ID. This returns a list of calendar days that had grade activity, with a summary count per day.

Filter to the user's requested date range.

4. Drill Into Each Day

For each day with activity, call get_gradebook_history_day with the course ID and the date string. This returns the graders who made changes and the assignments they touched.

Build a running summary:

• Grader name
• Number of submissions edited
• Assignments affected

5. Inspect Individual Edits (When Requested)

If the user wants to see the specific before/after values for a submission, call list_gradebook_history_submissions with the course ID, grader ID, assignment ID, and date. This returns per-student grade change records with old score, new score, and timestamp.

For a full chronological feed without filtering by grader, use get_gradebook_history_feed with the course ID (and optionally assignment ID or student ID).

6. Present the Audit Report

Gradebook Audit — [Course Name]
Period: [start date] → [end date]

SUMMARY
Total days with grade activity: 7
Total grade edits: 143
Graders active: 3

BREAKDOWN BY GRADER
• Prof. Martinez — 98 edits across 4 assignments (Apr 10–18)
• TA Chen — 42 edits across 2 assignments (Apr 12–14)
• System (auto-grade) — 3 edits (Apr 20)

NOTABLE CHANGES
• Assignment "Midterm Essay" — 12 students had scores changed on Apr 14
  Old avg: 71.2  →  New avg: 78.4  (grader: TA Chen)

• Student "Alex Doe" — grade changed 3 times on Apr 18 (possible error)

Ask the instructor if they want to export details or investigate any specific entry further.

Notes

• This skill is read-only — it audits but does not modify grades.
• Gradebook history is append-only in Canvas; this skill surfaces the official audit log.
• For courses with thousands of submissions, use date range narrowing to stay within API rate limits.
• The four gradebook history tools used here (list_gradebook_history_days, get_gradebook_history_day, list_gradebook_history_submissions, get_gradebook_history_feed) are unique to canvas-lms-mcp and not available in other Canvas MCP servers.