| name | canvas-at-risk-students |
| description | Identify at-risk Canvas students and send targeted outreach. Surfaces students with missing assignments, low grades, or declining submission patterns — then lets you message them directly. Trigger phrases include "at-risk students", "struggling students", "who's falling behind", "students to check in with", or "missing submissions". |
Canvas At-Risk Students
Identify students who are falling behind and reach out to them without leaving your agent session.
Prerequisites
- Canvas MCP server must be running and connected.
- You must have instructor or TA role in the target course.
- Student names are visible in output — only run this in a private or educator-only session.
Steps
1. Identify the Target Course
Ask the user which course to check. Accept a course name, course code, or Canvas ID.
If unclear, call list_courses to let the user select from their active courses.
2. Retrieve Enrolled Students
Call list_course_enrollments with type=StudentEnrollment and state=active to get the active student roster. Note the student user IDs — you will need them for individual lookups.
3. Collect Submission Data
Call list_assignments to get all assignments with due dates in the past 4 weeks. For each assignment:
- Call
list_submissions filtered to that assignment.
- Flag any student whose submission
workflow_state is unsubmitted or whose score is missing.
Build a per-student tally: missing assignment count and submitted-on-time count.
4. Classify by Risk Tier
| Tier | Criteria |
|---|
| Critical | 3 or more missing assignments in the past 4 weeks |
| Needs attention | 1–2 missing assignments, or a get_student_analytics score trend showing decline |
| On track | All assignments submitted |
For students in Critical or Needs Attention tiers, call get_student_analytics (with their user ID and the course ID) to confirm the pattern and surface their current grade.
5. Present the At-Risk List
Show a table:
| Student | Missing Assignments | Current Grade | Risk Tier |
|---|
| … | … | … | Critical |
Ask the instructor: "Would you like to send a check-in message to any of these students?"
6. Send Outreach (Optional)
For each student the instructor wants to contact, call send_conversation with:
recipients: the student's Canvas user ID (from the enrollment list)subject: a brief subject line (suggest a default, let instructor edit)body: a supportive check-in message (draft one, let instructor approve before sending)
Confirm each message before sending. Report which students were contacted.
Output Format
At-Risk Students — [Course Name] (checked [date range])
CRITICAL (3+ missing)
• Jane Smith — missing 4 of 5 assignments, current grade 41%
→ Message sent ✓
NEEDS ATTENTION (1–2 missing)
• Alex Doe — missing 1 assignment, grade trending from 78% → 68%
→ Instructor chose to skip
ON TRACK: 24 students
Notes
- This skill does not grade or modify any submissions — it is read-only except for the optional outreach step.
- Use
send_conversation only after explicit instructor confirmation per student.
- For large courses (100+ students), process assignments in batches to stay within Canvas rate limits.
