diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views.py
index 603010f5b4..bc74b028a8 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views.py
@@ -1498,6 +1498,12 @@ def create_new_course(request):
 
     new_course = modulestore('direct').clone_item(template, dest_location)
 
+    # clone a default 'about' module as well
+
+    about_template_location = Location(['i4x', 'edx', 'templates', 'about', 'overview'])
+    dest_about_location = dest_location._replace(category='about', name='overview')
+    modulestore('direct').clone_item(about_template_location, dest_about_location)
+
     if display_name is not None:
         new_course.display_name = display_name
 
diff --git a/cms/templates/settings.html b/cms/templates/settings.html
index a4355c98c5..0a647c632e 100644
--- a/cms/templates/settings.html
+++ b/cms/templates/settings.html
@@ -180,59 +180,6 @@ from contentstore import utils
               <label for="course-overview">Course Overview</label>
               <textarea class="tinymce text-editor" id="course-overview"></textarea>
               <span class="tip tip-stacked">Introductions, prerequisites, FAQs that are used on <a class="link-courseURL" rel="external" href="${utils.get_lms_link_for_about_page(course_location)}">your course summary page</a> (formatted in HTML)</span>
-
-                <!-- We need to add this default HTML as a boilerplate:
-
-                <section class="about">
-                  <h2>About This Course</h2>
-                  <p>Include your long course description here. The long course description should contain 150-400 words.</p>
-
-                  <p>This is paragraph 2 of the long course description. Add more paragraphs as needed. Make sure to enclose them in paragraph tags.</p>
-                </section>
-
-                <section class="prerequisites">
-                  <h2>Prerequisites</h2>
-                  <p>Add information about course prerequisites here.</p>
-                </section>
-
-                <section class="course-staff">
-                  <h2>Course Staff</h2>
-                  <article class="teacher">
-                    <div class="teacher-image">
-                      <img src="/c4x/edX/edX101/asset/Placeholder_FacultyImage.jpg" align="left" style="margin:0 20 px 0">
-                    </div>
-
-                    <h3>Staff member name</h3>
-                    <p>Biography of instructor/staff member</p>
-                  </article>
-
-                  <article class="teacher">
-                    <div class="teacher-image">
-                      <img src="/c4x/edX/edX101/asset/Placeholder_FacultyImage.jpg" align="left" style="margin:0 20 px 0">
-                    </div>
-
-                    <h3>Staff member name</h3>
-                    <p>Biography of instructor/staff member</p>
-                  </article>
-                </section>
-
-                <section class="faq">
-                  <section class="responses">
-                    <h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
-                    <article class="response">
-                      <h3>Do I need to buy a textbook?</h3>
-                      <p>No, a free online version of Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications, First Edition by Bruce Averill and Patricia Eldredge will be available, though you can purchase a printed version (published by FlatWorld Knowledge) if you’d like.</p>
-                    </article>
-
-                    <article class="response">
-                      <h3>Question #2</h3>
-                      <p>Your answer would be displayed here.</p>
-                    </article>
-                  </section>
-                  <article class="response">
-                </section>
-
-                -->
             </li>
 
             <li class="field video" id="field-course-introduction-video">
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/templates/about/overview.yaml b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/templates/about/overview.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0f6aec0af8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/templates/about/overview.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+metadata:
+    display_name: overview
+
+data: |
+               <section class="about">
+                  <h2>About This Course</h2>
+                  <p>Include your long course description here. The long course description should contain 150-400 words.</p>
+
+                  <p>This is paragraph 2 of the long course description. Add more paragraphs as needed. Make sure to enclose them in paragraph tags.</p>
+                </section>
+
+                <section class="prerequisites">
+                  <h2>Prerequisites</h2>
+                  <p>Add information about course prerequisites here.</p>
+                </section>
+
+                <section class="course-staff">
+                  <h2>Course Staff</h2>
+                  <article class="teacher">
+                    <div class="teacher-image">
+                      <img src="/c4x/edX/edX101/asset/Placeholder_FacultyImage.jpg" align="left" style="margin:0 20 px 0">
+                    </div>
+
+                    <h3>Staff member name</h3>
+                    <p>Biography of instructor/staff member</p>
+                  </article>
+
+                  <article class="teacher">
+                    <div class="teacher-image">
+                      <img src="/c4x/edX/edX101/asset/Placeholder_FacultyImage.jpg" align="left" style="margin:0 20 px 0">
+                    </div>
+
+                    <h3>Staff member name</h3>
+                    <p>Biography of instructor/staff member</p>
+                  </article>
+                </section>
+
+                <section class="faq">
+                  <section class="responses">
+                    <h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
+                    <article class="response">
+                      <h3>Do I need to buy a textbook?</h3>
+                      <p>No, a free online version of Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications, First Edition by Bruce Averill and Patricia Eldredge will be available, though you can purchase a printed version (published by FlatWorld Knowledge) if you’d like.</p>
+                    </article>
+
+                    <article class="response">
+                      <h3>Question #2</h3>
+                      <p>Your answer would be displayed here.</p>
+                    </article>
+                  </section>
+                  <article class="response">
+                </section>
+children: []
\ No newline at end of file