The Block Content Editor is coming — shaped by the voices of educators every step of the way. This new editing experience, powered by AI, makes creating engaging, accessible course content simpler and more attainable than ever before.
Listening, Learning, and Building Together
Creating course content is one of the most direct ways educators shape student comprehension, engagement, and ultimately, equity in education. Yet for many, building engaging and accessible course materials has been harder than it should be. Too often, it requires specialized HTML knowledge or formal instructional design support that not every educator has access to. Those barriers can lead to students missing out on learning experiences they deserve.
In our last update within the Block Content Editor user group, we shared the first steps of a new approach to make content creation simpler, more powerful, and more accessible for every educator. Since then, with input from that user group, we’ve accelerated development and centered our efforts on thoughtfully incorporating AI.
As a result, we are excited to launch the Block Content Editor’s Early Adopter Program (EAP) on September 29, 2025. Read on to learn more about what’s coming and how to get involved.
The Next Chapter Starts Here: Early Adopter Program
The Early Adopter Program invites interested customers to begin using the updated Block Content Editor experience and provide feedback directly to our product and engineering teams. During this period, we’ll work closely with participants to validate the solution in real-world use cases, gather insights on usability and performance, and refine the experience based on your input. This collaboration ensures the Block Content Editor evolves to meet your needs ahead of a broader release.
Early Adopter Program participants will be able to:
- Build visually engaging modular pages – Add, arrange, duplicate, remove, and undo/redo content blocks—no coding required. Current block types include Text, Image, Text + Image, Highlight, Media (audio/video), Interactive Buttons, and Divider.
- Customize with clarity – Adjust text, colors, and block labels to create a clear, professional structure and visual hierarchy.
- Integrate media seamlessly – Upload or embed images, video, and audio directly to enrich and inform course content. Supported media sources include files uploaded from a device, media stored in Canvas, and embedded media from external platforms. Formal Studio integration will be available in the future, but is not currently supported.
- Preview across devices – Review page designs on desktop, tablet, and mobile to ensure a consistent experience.
- Ensure accessibility – Use Canvas’ Accessibility Checker and AI-powered alt text generation to meet A11y standards more efficiently.
- Support differentiated learning – Leverage familiar assign-to capabilities to tailor content delivery for diverse student needs.
And of course, content creation will remain accessible for educators, with full support for keyboard navigation and screen reader technologies.
As a result, students will be able to:
- View accessible, structured pages on desktop devices.
- Interact with multimedia and clear call-to-actions to stay engaged.
- Use screen readers and keyboard navigation confidently, with a compliant loading experience for large content.
Please note: Current designs are subject to change.
The Journey Ahead: Building Toward a More Scalable Future
Launching the core experience now delivers immediate value and sets the stage for growth and scalability. By putting the updated Block Content Editor into the hands of educators, we can continue addressing long-standing challenges in course design that include:
- Making content creation more efficient without sacrificing simplicity.
- Supporting the consistency institutions need across courses, programs, and departments.
- Introducing AI-driven workflows that simplify content creation - whether from scratch, or by transforming existing materials.
How to get involved?
Interested in participating in the Early Adopter Program?
Please sign up using this EAP request form. A member of our team will reach out with additional details in the coming weeks. We encourage all interested customers to submit a request, though final participation will depend on approval from your LMS administrators so we can ensure the proper permissions are in place to enable the experience for your instance.
Just interested in staying updated on progress?
If you prefer not to participate in early testing, you can stay informed by joining the Block Content Editor Community User Group. To join, submit your Community username here to be added and receive updates on development progress and future availability dates.
Pro tip: if you’re unsure of your Community username, log into the Community, click on your avatar, and view your username under the “my profile” tab.
Housekeeping for our earliest testers
Please be aware that the previous "Block Editor" feature option will be removed on September 29, allowing Early Adopters and our engineering team to concentrate on the Block Content Editor's newest design and user experience. We appreciate those who have continued testing the prior Block Editor design to help us get to this point.
Those who are not participating in the Block Content Editor’s Early Adopter Program are welcome to continue using Canvas’ native Rich Content Editor for their content creation needs.
Thank you for being part of shaping this powerful new experience.
