Canvas Course QC

Systematically walk a Canvas course from top to bottom — syllabus, modules, pages, assignments, and rubrics — and produce a prioritised list of issues to fix before publication.

Prerequisites

• Canvas MCP server must be running and connected.
• You must have instructor, designer, or admin role in the target course.
• The course may be unpublished — this skill reads draft content.

Steps

1. Load Course Metadata

Call get_course with the course ID to retrieve:

• Course name and code
• Publication status (workflow_state: unpublished, available, completed)
• Start and end dates
• Default view (modules, syllabus, etc.)

Report the publication status upfront — if the course is already live, note that this is a post-launch audit.

2. Check the Syllabus

Call get_syllabus for the course. Check:

• Is the syllabus body non-empty?
• Does it contain placeholder text (e.g. "TBD", "Coming soon", "Lorem ipsum")?
• Are expected sections present (course description, grading policy, contact info)?

Flag any missing or placeholder syllabus content.

3. Walk the Module Structure

Call list_modules for the course to get all modules. For each module:

1. Call get_module (with the module ID) to get its publication state, unlock date, and prerequisite chain.
2. Call list_module_items (with the course ID and module ID) to get the full item list.

For each module record:

• Flag modules that are empty (zero items)
• Flag modules that are unpublished if the course is live
• Flag modules with a broken prerequisite (prerequisite module ID not in the module list)
• Note the item count and item types (page, assignment, quiz, file, external URL)

4. Check Pages

From the module items collected in Step 3, identify items of type Page. For each page item:

Call get_page (with the course ID and page URL or slug from the module item) to retrieve its content and publication state.

Check for:

• Unpublished pages in a published module (students cannot see them)
• Empty body — page with no content
• Placeholder text — same heuristic as the syllabus check
• Broken relative links — look for href="/courses/ patterns that reference a different course ID

Flag each issue with the module name and page title.

5. Check Assignments

Call list_assignments for the course. For each assignment:

Call get_assignment (with the course ID and assignment ID) to verify:

• Submission type is configured (not none unless intentional)
• Points possible is set (not null or zero for graded assignments)
• Due date is set
• Rubric is attached if the assignment description implies criteria-based grading

If rubric_id is null on an assignment that appears to require rubric grading (based on its description mentioning criteria or a grading rubric), flag it as a missing rubric.

6. Check Rubrics

Call list_rubrics for the course to get all course-level rubrics.

For each rubric:

• Does it have at least two criteria?
• Do all criteria have point values set?
• Is it associated with at least one assignment?

Flag rubrics with zero assignment associations (orphaned rubrics — may indicate an assignment link was removed).

7. Present the QC Report

Organise findings by severity:

• Blockers — issues that will prevent students from accessing content or completing work (unpublished required pages, missing submission type, empty modules in the critical path)
• Warnings — issues that degrade quality but don't block access (placeholder text, missing due dates, missing rubrics on graded work)
• Suggestions — optional improvements (orphaned rubrics, empty optional modules)

Ask the designer if they want to drill into any specific finding or export the full list.

Output Format

Course QC Report — [Course Name]  ([course code])
Status: [Published / Unpublished]  |  Modules: [n]  |  Assignments: [n]  |  Pages: [n]

BLOCKERS  ([n] found)
• Module "[name]" — empty (no items)
• Page "[title]" in module "[name]" — unpublished (students cannot access)
• Assignment "[name]" — submission type not configured

WARNINGS  ([n] found)
• Syllabus — contains placeholder text ("TBD" in section 2)
• Assignment "[name]" — no due date set
• Assignment "[name]" — points possible is 0 (intentional?)
• Assignment "[name]" — no rubric attached (description mentions criteria)

SUGGESTIONS  ([n] found)
• Rubric "[name]" — not associated with any assignment
• Module "[name]" — empty (optional module, consider removing or adding a note)

PASSED
✓ All published pages have content
✓ All modules have items
✓ Syllabus is present and non-empty

Notes

• This skill is fully read-only — it audits but does not modify any course content. Use the Canvas web UI or course copy tools to fix issues.
• There is no get_course_structure aggregator in canvas-lms-mcp; this skill explicitly chains list_modules → list_module_items → get_page / get_assignment. For large courses (20+ modules), this may take a few minutes.
• Placeholder text detection is heuristic (looks for common strings). Review flagged items manually — a page titled "TBD Topics" may be intentional.
• The skill does not check external URLs for liveness (Canvas does not expose link-check results via the API). Flag any items of type ExternalUrl for manual verification by the designer.