diff --git a/cms/templates/widgets/html-edit.html b/cms/templates/widgets/html-edit.html
index 666aa1de81..f0f63ea905 100644
--- a/cms/templates/widgets/html-edit.html
+++ b/cms/templates/widgets/html-edit.html
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@
     </section>
   </section>
 
-  <textarea name="" class="edit-box" rows="8" cols="40">${module.definition['data']}</textarea>
-  <div class="preview">${module.definition['data']}</div>
+  <textarea name="" class="edit-box" rows="8" cols="40">${data}</textarea>
+  <div class="preview">${data}</div>
 
   <div class="actions wip">
     <a href="" class="save-update">Save &amp; Update</a>
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/html_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/html_module.py
index 32963600cd..307b1309e4 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/html_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/html_module.py
@@ -2,8 +2,7 @@ import json
 import logging
 
 from xmodule.x_module import XModule
-from xmodule.mako_module import MakoModuleDescriptor
-from xmodule.xml_module import XmlDescriptor
+from xmodule.raw_module import RawDescriptor
 from lxml import etree
 from pkg_resources import resource_string
 
@@ -19,7 +18,7 @@ class HtmlModule(XModule):
         self.html = self.definition['data']['text']
 
 
-class HtmlDescriptor(MakoModuleDescriptor, XmlDescriptor):
+class HtmlDescriptor(RawDescriptor):
     """
     Module for putting raw html in a course
     """
@@ -28,7 +27,3 @@ class HtmlDescriptor(MakoModuleDescriptor, XmlDescriptor):
 
     js = {'coffee': [resource_string(__name__, 'js/module/html.coffee')]}
     js_module = 'HTML'
-
-    @classmethod
-    def definition_from_xml(cls, xml_object, system):
-        return {'data': {'text': etree.tostring(xml_object)}}