Is there any way for the Canvas messaging tool to personalise the Student name in the message, by using the parameter for student name? e,g, {{Student_firstname}} 

So after filtering the conditions in New Analytics to segment the students meeting the conditions for the message - which is described nicely here 
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-send-a-message-to-all-students-based-on...

The first line of the Message would be something like 

Dear {{short_name}},

blah blah

(Probably should have posted this in the Analytics forum)