Catch struggling students
early.
EarlyARC reads your Canvas courses and tells you which students need attention — and says, in plain language, exactly why.
macOS 14 or later · Free · Read-only & private
| Risk | Student | Why |
|---|---|---|
| At Risk | Jordan |
4 of 51 assignments missing — 18% of the grade Missing: Final Project, Reading Quiz 7 +2 more Current score 38% (below 70%) |
| Watch | Sam |
1 assignment missing — 9% of the grade Low time in course (13h vs 40h median) |
| Watch | Priya | Quiet 12 days longer than the class |
| Marcus | Nothing stood out | |
| Ava | Nothing stood out |
What it does
The students who need you, first.
Pick a course and EarlyARC shows the roster worst-first — with the evidence beside every flag, not a mystery score.
Every flag says why
Missing work, a slipping grade, going quiet — each reason is spelled out in plain language. No black box to second-guess.
Missing work that counts
Weighted by its share of the final grade, so 18% of the grade reads differently from a missed practice quiz.
Judged against the class
Inactivity and time-in-course are measured against classmates, not the calendar — so a quiet holiday doesn't flag everyone.
Message in your words
Copy a ready-to-send note built from your own templates. EarlyARC fills in the specifics; the voice stays yours.
One click into Canvas
Every name, assignment, and score links straight to the right page in Canvas, because acting on it still happens there.
Read-only by design
EarlyARC can only ever read. There is no code path that changes a course, a grade, or a student.
Getting started
Connected in a minute.
No account to create. No server to trust. Just your Canvas and your Mac.
Connect to Canvas
Paste a personal access token you generate in Canvas. It is stored in your Mac's Keychain and only ever used to read.
Open a course
Your courses appear grouped by term. Click one to see its roster, or click a whole term to combine every flagged student.
See who needs a nudge
The students worth a look rise to the top, each with a plain reason. Reach out in a click, and EarlyARC remembers you did.
Accessibility
Readable by design.
Built from native macOS controls, tested with the assistive tech teachers actually use.
Scales to 200%
The whole window grows from 80% to 200% — a slider in Settings, or ⌘+ and ⌘− like everywhere else.
VoiceOver, properly
Every control names itself with its units, evidence reads as sentences, and every link in a row is individually reachable.
Never color alone
Risk levels are words, not just colors. Dark Mode, system contrast, and system fonts throughout.
Privacy first
Student data never leaves your Mac.
EarlyARC is built for people who take FERPA seriously. It reads from Canvas, draws the screen, and forgets — there is no cloud, no account, and no analytics.
- Rosters are held in memory and gone when you quit — no cache, no database of student work.
- Your access token lives in the macOS Keychain, never in a file or a log.
- The only server it contacts is your own Canvas. No analytics, no telemetry.
- Signed and notarized by Apple, and sandboxed.
EarlyARC displays identifiable student records, so your institution's rules govern how you use it. Keeping the data on your Mac is not the same as having permission to view it.
Download
Try it with your own courses.
Free, notarized, and ready in a minute.