diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/tests/factories.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/tests/factories.py
index ca4b557e80..5375f3262f 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/tests/factories.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/tests/factories.py
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ class XModuleItemFactory(Factory):
         new_item = store.clone_item(template, dest_location)
 
         # TODO: This needs to be deleted when we have proper storage for static content
-        new_item.metadata['data_dir'] = parent.metadata['data_dir']
+        new_item.data_dir = parent.data_dir
 
         # replace the display name with an optional parameter passed in from the caller
         if display_name is not None:
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/module_render.py b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/module_render.py
index 54498cfc56..7204acb4b3 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/module_render.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/module_render.py
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ def get_module_for_descriptor(user, request, descriptor, model_data_cache, cours
 
     module.get_html = replace_static_urls(
         _get_html,
-        getattr(module, 'data_dir', ''),
+        getattr(descriptor, 'data_dir', None),
         course_namespace=module.location._replace(category=None, name=None))
 
     # Allow URLs of the form '/course/' refer to the root of multicourse directory