diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/docs/decisions/0001-validation-at-course-save.rst b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/docs/decisions/0001-validation-at-course-save.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e3b318cdd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/docs/decisions/0001-validation-at-course-save.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+========================================
+OEP-0001: Data Validation at Course Save
+========================================
+
+.. list-table::
+   :widths: 25 75
+
+   * - OEP
+     - :doc:`OEP-XXXX </oeps/oep-XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ>`
+
+       * <XXXX is the next available OEP number>
+       * <YYYY is the abbreviated Type: proc | bp | arch>
+       * <ZZZZ is a brief (< 5 words) version of the title>
+   * - Title
+     - <OEP title>
+   * - Last Modified
+     - <date string, in YYYY-MM-DD format>
+   * - Authors
+     - <list of authors' real names and optionally, email addresses>
+   * - Arbiter
+     - <Arbiter's real name and email address>
+   * - Status
+     - <Draft | Under Review | Deferred | Accepted | Rejected | Withdrawn | Final | Replaced>
+   * - Type
+     - <Architecture | Best Practice | Process>
+   * - Created
+     - <date created on, in YYYY-MM-DD format>
+   * - Review Period
+     - <start - target end dates for review>
+
+Context
+-------
+Data validation in the Django Rest Framework "is performed entirely on the serializer class". Doing validation at
+the serializer level provides a few key advantages, such as making the data validation code easier to understand and 
+reason about.
+
+The Advanced Settings view is a Django view that allows reading and writing course metadata to the modulestore. These data
+proctored exam settings (e.g. "enable proctored exams", "proctoring provider", etc.). This view leverages the CourseMetadata class
+to read from and write to the modulestore. The CourseMetada class supports data validation in the validate_and_update_from_json method.
+The results of calling this method can be saved to the database.
+
+We are adding a Django Rest Framework REST API that exposes an endpoint for reading and writing proctored 
+exam settings to the modulestore. This REST API will be used by the course-authoring MFE to support a new
+Proctored Exam Settings page.
+
+Decision
+--------
+
+We will not implement additional validation 
+
+Consequences
+------------
+
+This section describes the resulting context, after applying the decision.
+All consequences should be listed here, not just the "positive" ones. A particular
+decision may have positive, negative, and neutral consequences, but all of them
+affect the team and project in the future.
+
+References
+----------
+
+List any additional references here that would be useful to the future reader.
+See `Documenting Architecture Decisions`_ for further input.
+
+.. _Documenting Architecture Decisions: http://thinkrelevance.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-architecture-decisions
diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/serializers.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/serializers.py
index 157ae681d4..f04baff1d3 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/serializers.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/serializers.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ class ProctoredExamSettingsSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
     enable_proctored_exams = serializers.BooleanField()
     allow_proctoring_opt_out = serializers.BooleanField()
     proctoring_provider = serializers.CharField()
-    proctoring_escalation_email = serializers.CharField(allow_blank=True)
+    proctoring_escalation_email = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_null=True)
     create_zendesk_tickets = serializers.BooleanField()
 
 
@@ -28,4 +28,3 @@ class ProctoredExamConfigurationSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
     proctored_exam_settings = ProctoredExamSettingsSerializer()
     available_proctoring_providers = serializers.ChoiceField(get_available_providers())
     course_start_date = serializers.DateTimeField()
-    is_staff = serializers.BooleanField()
diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/tests/test_views.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/tests/test_views.py
index eb2fdf19c6..b9d89fb9c2 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/tests/test_views.py
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ class ProctoringExamSettingsGetTests(ProctoringExamSettingsTestMixin, ModuleStor
             },
             'course_start_date': '2030-01-01T00:00:00Z',
             'available_proctoring_providers': ['null'],
-            'is_staff': user.is_staff,
         }
 
     def make_request(self, course_id=None, data=None):
@@ -196,7 +195,7 @@ class ProctoringExamSettingsPostTests(ProctoringExamSettingsTestMixin, ModuleSto
         data = self.get_request_data(
             enable_proctored_exams=True,
             proctoring_provider='test_proctoring_provider',
-            proctoring_escalation_email=''
+            proctoring_escalation_email=None
         )
         response = self.make_request(data=data)
 
diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/views.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/views.py
index b069097028..fce8e6d5dc 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/views.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/rest_api/v1/views.py
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ class ProctoredExamSettingsView(APIView):
                 "proctortrack"
             ],
             "course_start_date": "2013-02-05T05:00:00Z",
-            "is_staff": true
         }
 
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -101,7 +100,6 @@ class ProctoredExamSettingsView(APIView):
             data['proctored_exam_settings'] = proctored_exam_settings
             data['available_proctoring_providers'] = get_available_providers()
             data['course_start_date'] = course_metadata['start'].get('value')
-            data['is_staff'] = request.user.is_staff
 
             serializer = ProctoredExamConfigurationSerializer(data)