---
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:

1. Call `list_assignments` to find assignments with a due date in the **past 7 days**.
2. 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_conversation`; multiple recipients are a preview + confirmation call)
> 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.


---
Source attribution: vishalsachdev
Original project: https://github.com/vishalsachdev/canvas-mcp/blob/becd181c0c11d45e66d2390031059a111554816a/skills/canvas-morning-check/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Dave AI.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Vishal Sachdev

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Dave AI resource metadata

Creator / publisher: vishalsachdev
Original project: https://github.com/vishalsachdev/canvas-mcp/blob/becd181c0c11d45e66d2390031059a111554816a/skills/canvas-morning-check/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Recovered original package and original project license at a pinned revision

Fields of work: Education & Research
Roles: Academic Writer, Curriculum Designer, Tutor / Instructor
Specialties: Specialty not specified
Tools: Canvas
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: f2e124d3336f79fdd68f71ce85a548c33f33bae531e45b3d09d6e400787b9e0f
Metadata reviewed: 2026-10-27
This metadata supersedes earlier Dave AI catalog attribution. Original instruction and supporting files are preserved.