Discontinuation of Kaltura video service & migration to Canvas Studio

KI, in collaboration with IT department, is considering whether to discontinue the Kaltura video service, which is used to store video and audio materials for Canvas courses. This also includes KI Play, which contains materials used in Canvas as well as external locations embedded on KI pages and other off-campus sites.

The decision has now been made to continue with Kaltura until the end of 2026 (this is the preliminary date).

To ensure a smooth transition, UoL has initiated a migration project focused on video materials currently used in Canvas. Canvas Studio will replace Kaltura as the platform for storing course-related video and audio content.

Migration timeline

Q2-3 2025: ITA, in collaboration with Instructure, will begin migrating (copying) the video content from Kaltura published in Canvas via My Media & Media Gallery to Canvas Studio.

What you need to do

The migration project only applies to video or audio files uploaded to My Media or Media Gallery within Canvas courses. KI Play content used outside of Canvas is not included in the migration. For example, videos embedded in KIs Drupal pages are not included.
We recommend that you consider Canvas Studio for those videos that you use for your teaching. If you embed videos in your Canvas courses from KI Play we suggest you copy these videos to Canvas Studio. The natural solution is to use Canvas Studio, which is already available via your Canvas login and will give you the chance to create captions for videos that do not already have them.

Transition from Kaltura (My Media & Media Gallery) to Canvas Studio at Karolinska Institutet (KI)

To facilitate the transition from Kaltura (My Media & Media Gallery) to Canvas Studio, we want to provide the following information:

Transition process

Instructure will work with KI’s IT department to copy videos from Canvas Media Gallery and My Media to Canvas Studio.
The copied videos will be published in the Studio library of the current owner of each video. The owner can share videos via Canvas Studio with colleagues.
File size limitations: Canvas Studio has a 10 GB file size limit per file. If your file in Kaltura is larger than 10 GB, it will not be migrated to Canvas Studio. If you have a media file exceeding this size, please contact KI’s IT support for guidance.

Impact on course materials

Videos published locally in Canvas courses will not be affected by this transition. These videos are stored under "Files" in the course and are not linked to Kaltura.
To verify the source of a video in Canvas, follow the instructions provided on this page.

Recommended actions for content creators

If you create and upload videos in Canvas, we recommend starting to upload your videos to Canvas Studio and, if necessary, sharing them with relevant individuals who need access to work on subtitles.
To improve video management and identification, we encourage teachers to change the thumbnail image when uploading videos to Studio. Instructions for this can be found here: M2.9 Replace thumbnail & publishing Recommendations.

Questions & Support

For questions regarding KI Play content outside of Canvas, please contact the ITA department.
For assistance with getting started in Canvas Studio use the contact form to send in your queries