diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/check_course.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/check_course.py
index aec1a34c04..6d6c4ebde5 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/check_course.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/check_course.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from request_cache.middleware import RequestCache
 from django.core.cache import get_cache, InvalidCacheBackendError
 
 class Command(BaseCommand):
-    help = '''Delete a MongoDB backed course'''
+    help = '''Enumerates through the course and find common errors'''
 
     def handle(self, *args, **options):
         if len(args) != 1 :
@@ -38,10 +38,9 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
         # we've had a bug where the xml_attributes field can we rewritten as a string rather than a dict
         def _check_xml_attributes_field(module):
             err_cnt = 0
-            if hasattr(module, 'xml_attributes'):
-                if isinstance(module.xml_attributes, str) or isinstance(module.xml_attributes, unicode):
-                    print 'module = {0} has xml_attributes as a string. It should be a dict'.format(module.location.url())
-                    err_cnt = err_cnt + 1
+            if hasattr(module, 'xml_attributes') and isinstance(module.xml_attributes, basestring):
+                print 'module = {0} has xml_attributes as a string. It should be a dict'.format(module.location.url())
+                err_cnt = err_cnt + 1
             for child in module.get_children():
                 err_cnt = err_cnt + _check_xml_attributes_field(child)
             return err_cnt
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml_importer.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml_importer.py
index 0a7d07afe1..53eaebf850 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml_importer.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/xml_importer.py
@@ -379,10 +379,11 @@ def check_module_metadata_editability(module):
     allowed = allowed + ['xml_attributes', 'display_name']
     err_cnt = 0
     my_metadata = dict(own_metadata(module))
-    for key in my_metadata.keys():
-        if key not in allowed:
-            err_cnt = err_cnt + 1
-            print ': found metadata on {0}. Studio will not support editing this piece of metadata, so it is not allowed. Metadata: {1} = {2}'. format(module.location.url(), key, my_metadata[key])
+    illegal_keys = set(own_metadata(module).keys()) - set(allowed)
+
+    if len(illegal_keys) > 0:
+        err_cnt = err_cnt + 1
+        print ': found non-editable metadata on {0}. These metadata keys are not supported = {1}'. format(module.location.url(), illegal_keys)
 
     return err_cnt