Enhanced Educational YouTube Experience Now Available in Canvas Studio
Earlier this fall, Canvas partnered with YouTube to provide an enhanced educational YouTube experience through Canvas Studio. Instructors who embed Canvas Studio YouTube content into their Canvas courses will gain the following benefits:
- All embedded YouTube content will retain YouTube captioning to maintain accessibility
- All embedded YouTube content will prevent ads, recommendations, or links back to YouTube
Get started
To take advantage of this enhancement, it is recommended to add all YouTube content to Canvas Studio and embed the content with Canvas Studio instead of the YouTube integration tool within Canvas courses.
For YouTube content that is already embedded in a Canvas course, each video can be converted using the YouTube Migration tool.
Visit the Add YouTube content and convert to Canvas Studio player tutorial or watch a video version of the tutorial for step-by-step instructions on how to add YouTube content to your Canvas Studio library or how to convert already embedded YouTube content in your Canvas course.
Please note: As of October 31, 2025, any embedded YouTube content that has not been converted may begin to show ads.
Toolbar updates
Due to this new partnership with YouTube, the Canvas toolbar will be updated for the upcoming Spring 2026 semester to show the Canvas Studio button by default, with the YouTube button still available under the plug-in “Apps” button. Here are examples of the current and new toolbars:
Current Canvas toolbar (fall 2025):
New Canvas toolbar (available spring 2026):
More information and resources
For more information on this recent update, please see the Instructure FAQ page.
Training and consulting are available through the Academic Technology Consultants (ATC) team. For more information on upcoming workshops, visit our Academic Technology Training page. To request an individual consultation, please fill out our Consultation Request form.
For additional questions or concerns, please visit our Canvas Studio service page or contact OIT help at 303-735-43557 or oithelp@colorado.edu.
