Practical examples showing how to combine Canvas MCP features for common teaching and learning scenarios.
Goal: Plan your week based on what’s due.
Show me everything due in the next 7 days across all my courses.
For each assignment, tell me:
1. What course it's for
2. When it's due
3. Whether I've submitted it
4. How many points it's worth
Follow-up:
Of those assignments, which ones are worth more than 50 points?
I should prioritize those.
Goal: Make sure you haven’t missed anything before exam week.
For MATH 221, show me:
1. All assignments from the past 4 weeks
2. Which ones I haven't submitted
3. My current grade
4. Any peer reviews I need to complete
Then:
What's the impact on my grade if I submit the missing assignments?
Goal: Get organized across all your classes.
Create a summary for me:
- List all my courses
- For each course, show my current grade
- Highlight any missing assignments
- Show upcoming deadlines in the next 2 weeks
Goal: Start the week knowing where your students stand.
For CS 101, give me a status report:
1. Submission rate for last week's assignment
2. Average score
3. Students who are falling behind (missing 2+ assignments)
4. Upcoming deadlines this week
Follow-up action:
Draft a supportive message to students who are missing multiple
assignments. Mention that office hours are available and we're
here to help them succeed.
Goal: Track and encourage participation.
Week 1:
For COMM 250, show me who has posted to Discussion 1.
The due date is Friday.
Week 2:
For Discussion 1, show me:
1. Who made initial posts
2. Who completed peer reviews
3. Who hasn't participated at all
Then draft a reminder message for students who haven't participated.
End of week:
Grade Discussion 1 in COMM 250:
- 10 points for initial post
- 5 points per peer review (must do 2)
- Maximum 10 points for peer reviews
Goal: Efficiently grade code submissions.
For Assignment 3 in CS 225 (Jupyter notebooks):
Use the bulk grading code API to:
1. Download all submissions
2. Check if each notebook runs without errors
3. Check if they implemented the required functions
4. Give full points (100) if error-free, 0 if errors
5. Add a comment with specific feedback
Then review:
Show me the grading summary. How many students got full points?
Who had errors?
Follow-up with struggling students:
For students who got 0 points on Assignment 3, draft an
encouraging message offering help in office hours.
Goal: Identify students who need support.
For ECON 102, analyze student performance:
1. List students with grade below 70%
2. Show which assignments they're missing
3. Compare their discussion participation to class average
Intervention:
Draft personalized messages for students below 70%, mentioning:
- Their specific missing assignments
- Offer to meet during office hours
- Resources available (tutoring, study groups)
- Encouraging tone - it's not too late to improve
Goal: Wrap up the semester efficiently.
For BADM 350, create an end-of-semester report:
1. Final grade distribution
2. Students with missing assignments
3. Overall assignment completion rate
4. Discussion participation statistics
Grade finalization:
Show me students who are on the border between grades
(within 2% of the next letter grade). I want to review their
work to see if any borderline cases deserve rounding up.
Goal: Maximize peer review completion.
Week 1 (assignment posted):
Create a peer review assignment for Essay 1 in ENG 101.
Each student should review 2 peers.
Week 2 (reminder):
Who hasn't started their peer reviews for Essay 1?
Send them a reminder that reviews are due in 3 days.
Week 3 (follow-up):
Analyze peer review completion:
- Who completed all reviews?
- Who completed some but not all?
- Who hasn't started?
Send targeted reminders to the last two groups.
Week 4 (grading):
Grade peer reviews for Essay 1:
- 20 points for completing 2 quality reviews
- 10 points for completing 1 review
- 0 points for no reviews
Goal: Track pre-class preparation.
Before class:
For Week 5 pre-reading in HIST 101:
1. Who completed the reading quiz?
2. Who participated in the pre-class discussion?
3. What questions did students ask?
Adjust lesson plan:
Based on the pre-class discussion, what topics are students
most confused about? I'll focus on those in class.
After class:
Send the class a summary of today's key points and link to
additional resources for topics they struggled with.
Goal: Use analytics to improve teaching.
Mid-semester:
For MATH 121, compare this semester to last:
1. Average grades on comparable assignments
2. Submission rates
3. Discussion participation
What's different this semester?
Assignment analysis:
For Assignment 5 in MATH 121:
1. What was the average score?
2. Which questions did students struggle with most?
3. Compare to last semester's Assignment 5
Adjust course:
Based on the analysis, students are struggling with
derivatives. Draft an announcement about extra practice
problems and optional review session.
Instead of processing students one-by-one, use bulk operations:
❌ Inefficient:
Show me Student 1's grade... now Student 2... now Student 3...
✅ Efficient:
Show me all students' grades for Assignment 5
✅ Most Efficient (for large classes):
Use the bulk grading code API to analyze all submissions
Create templates for common messages:
Create a template for my late assignment reminder message.
Include:
- Student's name
- Specific assignment they're missing
- New deadline (3 days from now)
- Offer to help
- Encouraging tone
Then use it:
Send the late assignment template to all students missing
Assignment 4, with the deadline set to Friday.
Process related tasks in one go:
For CS 225 Assignment 3:
1. Grade all submissions using the rubric
2. Identify students who scored below 70%
3. Draft personalized feedback for struggling students
4. Create a class announcement about common mistakes
For Assignment 6 in ECON 102:
1. Show me the grade distribution
2. List any students with 0 points
3. Check if those students actually submitted something
4. Show me submission timestamps
Student says they submitted Assignment 2 but it shows as missing.
Check:
1. All submissions for this student in this course
2. Submission timestamps
3. Assignment status
Then explain what I find.
Learn these patterns to save time:
Morning routine (2 minutes):
Quick status for all my courses: submission rates for current
assignments, any concerning patterns, what needs my attention today.
Grading day (using bulk operations):
Bulk grade Assignment X in Course Y using [specific criteria].
Show me the results summary, then I'll review borderline cases.
Student support (targeted help):
Identify students who need support in Course Z (missing assignments,
low grades, low participation). Draft messages offering help.
Start with your goal:
Break it into steps:
Automate what you can:
Iterate and improve:
Need more ideas? Check out the Educator Guide or open a discussion to share your workflows!