Give peer-learning ideas a Canvas discussion space
When your cohort team spots an opportunity for learners to help each other, give that conversation a home in Canvas.
Trigger
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
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
Peer-learning ideas are easy to lose when they stay among organizers in Slack.
- Create a shared course space for cohort exchange.
- Keep peer-learning prompts discoverable after the week moves on.
- Reduce the work of translating an idea into a course discussion.
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect Slack and Canvas to Notis once via the portal.
- 2Create a new automation in the portal or ask Notis to configure it conversationally.
- 3In one plain-language prompt, ask Notis to create a Canvas discussion topic for Slack messages that propose a concrete peer-learning prompt for a named course.
- 4Select Slack Channel Message Received, choose where run reports appear, and test with one real prompt.
Questions about this workflow
Can the discussion topic be a graded activity?
Canvas discussion topics have configuration options. Describe the intended setup in your prompt and verify the result in Canvas.
How do I avoid creating topics for casual ideas?
Tell Notis to act only on a concrete peer-learning prompt that your team has decided to use.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Slack to Canvas. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Slack 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 Channel Created Trigger
Triggered when a new channel is created in Slack.
Create an assignment
Creates a new assignment within a specified course in canvas lms.
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
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.
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
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.
Message Reaction Added
Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Create communication channel
Creates a new communication channel (e.g., email, sms, push) for an existing canvas user to receive notifications.
Message Reaction Removed
Triggered when a reaction is removed from a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Create content share
Shares a canvas content item to specified users, if the sender has necessary permissions and receiver ids are valid.
Reaction Added Trigger
DEPRECATED: use `SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED` instead. Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack.
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.
Slack and Canvas, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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