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Notis

See Submission History Without Opening Canvas

A student submits an assignment and you want to see their past attempts and revisions. Instead of logging into Canvas, Notis automatically retrieves their submission history in Slack—you see growth, revision patterns, and context at a glance.

Trigger

New Canvas Assignment Submission

Polls Canvas for new submissions to a specific assignment.

Action

Fetch conversation history

Fetches a chronological list of messages and events from a specified slack conversation, accessible by the authenticated user/bot, with options for pagination and time range filtering.

Why this helps

You see a new submission but have no quick context about this student's previous work. You need to navigate Canvas to check history, or you miss the opportunity to recognize improvement or spot patterns of struggle.

  • See student progress without context-switching
  • Recognize growth and revision patterns
  • Provide better feedback when you understand history
  • Celebrate improvement instantly

Setup

Build it in a few focused steps.

  • 1Connect Canvas and Slack.
  • 2Create Automation: Name ('Submission History'), Prompt ('When a new submission arrives in Canvas, fetch and post the student's previous submissions and feedback in Slack so I can see their progress'), Channel (your submissions or grading channel), Trigger ('New Canvas Assignment Submission').
  • 3Each new submission is accompanied by history and context, visible right in Slack.

Questions about this workflow

Will I see all past versions or just recent ones?

Refine the prompt to get recent submissions (e.g., 'last 3 submissions') or full history, depending on your preference.

Can I see instructor feedback from past submissions?

Yes—Notis retrieves feedback comments alongside submission history.

What if this is the student's first submission?

Notis will note that and just show the current submission with context.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Supported Triggers and Actions

Notis builds workflows that link Canvas to Slack. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.

Canvas triggers

Slack actions

Canvas Assignment Graded

Polls Canvas for newly graded submissions for a specific assignment.

TriggerPolling

Set snooze duration

Deprecated: turns on do not disturb mode for the current user, or changes its duration. use `set dnd duration` instead.

ActionInstant

New Canvas Assignment Submission

Polls Canvas for new submissions to a specific assignment.

TriggerPolling

Add a custom emoji to a Slack team

Deprecated: adds a custom emoji to a slack workspace given a unique name and an image url. use `add emoji` instead.

ActionInstant

New Canvas Discussion Message

Polls Canvas discussion topics for new messages.

TriggerPolling

Add an emoji alias

Adds an alias for an existing custom emoji in a slack enterprise grid organization.

ActionInstant

New Canvas Discussion Topic

Polls a Canvas course for new discussion topics.

TriggerPolling

Add a remote file

Adds a reference to an external file (e.g., google drive, dropbox) to slack for discovery and sharing, requiring a unique `external id` and an `external url` accessible by slack.

ActionInstant

New Course Created for User

Polls Canvas for newly created courses for a specific user.

TriggerPolling

Add a star to an item

Stars a channel, file, file comment, or a specific message in slack.

ActionInstant

New Canvas File Upload

Polls a Canvas course for new file uploads.

TriggerPolling

Add call participants

Registers new participants added to a slack call.

ActionInstant

Add emoji

Adds a custom emoji to a slack workspace given a unique name and an image url; subject to workspace emoji limits.

ActionInstant

Add reaction to message

Adds a specified emoji reaction to an existing message in a slack channel, identified by its timestamp; does not remove or retrieve reactions.

ActionInstant

Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.

Not just Canvas and Slack. Any combination from 1,000+ integrations.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

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