Migrate YouTube Videos to Canvas Studio to Ensure a Distraction-Free Learning Environment
As of September 22, 2025, YouTube videos directly embedded or linked in Canvas course content have begun displaying advertisements. These interruptions may include pop-ups, pre-roll ads, and other commercial distractions — all of which can negatively impact the focus and professionalism of your learning materials.
To maintain a distraction-free, ad-free educational environment, we strongly recommend that faculty migrate any existing YouTube videos to Canvas Studio.
You might be wondering why it matters in medical education. Medical education requires a high level of concentration, clinical relevance, and professionalism from educators and learners. Advertisements inserted into core instructional content can disrupt the cognitive flow necessary to understand complex medical topics, potentially undermining the credibility of your carefully curated course materials. Moreover, these ads may introduce inappropriate or irrelevent content that does not align with the standards and environment expected in clinical education. By ensuring that video content remains free of distractions, faculty can provide a more focused and respectful learning experience that upholds the integrity of medical training.
Canvas Studio is the video repository solution available in all our Canvas courses. It offers a seamless alternative by blocking ads and pop-ups, ensuring that video content remains focused, clean, and fully aligned with your course objectives. If you're using YouTube videos embedded directly in your Canvas course (e.g., using a YouTube link or embed code), you may migrate those videos to Canvas Studio using one of the following options:
- Manual Upload: Add YouTube videos directly into the Studio library.
- YouTube Video Migration Tool: A guided tool to streamline the migration process within each Canvas course.
A short walkthrough video of the migration process is available at the link here. The link also includes setup instructions and details on enabling the Migration Tool in your course.
No action is needed if your videos are already embedded in Canvas via Studio. Your content is already protected, and students will continue to experience an ad-free interface.
If you are unsure how your videos are set up, the Migration Tool is an easy way to review your Canvas content for any YouTube links or embedded videos. It will locate the YouTube content, display each video, and give you the option to convert them to Studio videos. The tool is limited to videos and links located in Canvas content, such as pages, assignments, discussions, etc. It cannot review items such as .ppt files housed in the course.
Once you have reviewed your course content and converted any YouTube videos to Studio, access them in Student View to confirm a clean, ad-free experience.
For assistance with the Migration Tool or embedding videos via Studio, please get in touch with your school’s instructional designer at lstanford1@umc.edu or submit a Help Desk ticket by emailing helpdesk@umc.edu.
Let’s ensure our students receive the highest-quality learning experience — without distraction.