Turn course ideas in email into Canvas discussion topics
Capture a timely idea while it is fresh and turn it into a Canvas discussion prompt learners can engage with.
Trigger
New Email Received
Trigger for new emails in an AgentMail inbox
Action
Create discussion topic
Creates a new discussion topic in a specified canvas course, allowing comprehensive configuration of its content, type, publication settings, engagement features, and associations.
Why this helps
Potentially useful discussion ideas get buried in the inbox before they make it into the course.
- Capture ideas before they disappear in email
- Reduce the effort of drafting discussion prompts
- Bring timely topics into the course
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect Agent mail and Canvas once in the Notis portal.
- 2Create an automation in Automations, New Automation, and name it for discussion ideas.
- 3Give Notis one instruction describing which incoming ideas merit a new topic and how to write the prompt.
- 4Select New Email Received as the trigger and choose where run reports should go.
- 5Test with one real idea email and review the created topic.
Questions about this workflow
How does Notis know when an email merits a discussion topic?
State the qualities you want it to look for, such as a course-relevant question or a timely issue learners can discuss.
Can the topic be published right away?
Specify your preferred publication behavior in the instruction and ensure the Canvas account has the required permissions.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Agent mail to Canvas. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Agent mail triggers
Canvas actions
Recurring trigger
Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.
Create account notification
Creates a global notification within a canvas account, ensuring `end at` is after `start at` and any specified `notification roles` are valid.
Webhook trigger
Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.
Create appointment group
Creates a new appointment group in canvas for schedulable time slots within specified course or group contexts.
New Email Received
Trigger for new emails in an AgentMail inbox
Create an assignment
Creates a new assignment within a specified course in canvas lms.
Create assignment override
Creates an assignment override to adjust due/unlock/lock dates for an assignment in a course, targeting specific students (requires `title`), a group, or a course section; at least one target (`student ids`, `group id`, or `course section id`) is required.
Create Calendar Event
Creates a calendar event with options for recurrence (finite `rrule` series only), section-specific timings, and blackout dates within a specified context.
Create communication channel
Creates a new communication channel (e.g., email, sms, push) for an existing canvas user to receive notifications.
Create content share
Shares a canvas content item to specified users, if the sender has necessary permissions and receiver ids are valid.
Create conversation
Use to send messages in canvas by creating a new conversation or adding to an existing one; an existing conversation with the same recipients (and matching scope/filter, if specified) may be reused unless `force new` is true.
Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.
Agent mail and Canvas, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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