Canvas Page Builder
Build clear, accessible Canvas pages without writing HTML: click the layout together and paste the result into the Canvas HTML editor.
The Canvas Page Builder is a free web tool with which VU lecturers build Canvas pages without knowing HTML. You click together a course homepage, a single button or a columns block, see straight away how it looks, and paste the HTML into the Canvas editor. It also carries an AI helper that drafts HTML, rewrites text, and turns an uploaded file into a block you can paste as it is.
Advantages
- Three builders: course homepage, single button, and a block of two or three columns
- Accessibility is built in: real heading levels, real lists, and VU colours that meet WCAG 2.1 AA on white
- The AI helper reads PDF, Word, text, Markdown, HTML, CSV and images — five files at a time — and renders the result live beside the chat
- Templates for a week page, a module overview and an assignment intro, so a programme looks the same week after week
- Runs in the browser with nothing to install; drafts are saved locally
Points to note
- A pilot by the VU Education Lab; the makers explicitly ask for feedback
- Not integrated in Canvas: you copy the HTML into the HTML editor yourself (the </> icon above the editor)
- The structured builders send nothing; only the AI helper sends text to the server, and only when you ask it to
- The AI helper runs on the VU’s Azure OpenAI with the DataZoneStandard SKU, so inside the EU data zone; conversations are not stored
- Drafts live in your own browser’s local storage, not on a server — so they do not travel to another device
- The AI helper shares a quota; at busy times it can report that it is busy
If you draft text with the AI helper, always read it over before you publish.