diff --git a/cms/templates/widgets/metadata-edit.html b/cms/templates/widgets/metadata-edit.html
index ac904262c3..74c5ac968e 100644
--- a/cms/templates/widgets/metadata-edit.html
+++ b/cms/templates/widgets/metadata-edit.html
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   import hashlib
   import copy
   import json
-  hlskey = hashlib.md5(module.location.url()).hexdigest()
+  hlskey = hashlib.md5(module.location.url().encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
 %>
 
 ## js templates
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/student/models.py b/common/djangoapps/student/models.py
index e5017dab23..d691b35e5a 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/student/models.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/student/models.py
@@ -82,8 +82,8 @@ def anonymous_id_for_user(user, course_id):
     # include the secret key as a salt, and to make the ids unique across different LMS installs.
     hasher = hashlib.md5()
     hasher.update(settings.SECRET_KEY)
-    hasher.update(str(user.id))
-    hasher.update(course_id)
+    hasher.update(unicode(user.id))
+    hasher.update(course_id.encode('utf-8'))
     digest = hasher.hexdigest()
 
     try:
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/xmodule_modifiers.py b/common/djangoapps/xmodule_modifiers.py
index 21fb55c460..55160f766f 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/xmodule_modifiers.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/xmodule_modifiers.py
@@ -72,13 +72,13 @@ def wrap_xblock(runtime_class, block, view, frag, context, display_name_only=Fal
         data['runtime-class'] = runtime_class
         data['runtime-version'] = frag.js_init_version
         data['block-type'] = block.scope_ids.block_type
-        data['usage-id'] = quote_slashes(unicode(block.scope_ids.usage_id).encode('utf-8'))
+        data['usage-id'] = quote_slashes(unicode(block.scope_ids.usage_id))
 
     template_context = {
         'content': block.display_name if display_name_only else frag.content,
         'classes': css_classes,
         'display_name': block.display_name_with_default,
-        'data_attributes': ' '.join(u'data-{}="{}"'.format(key, value) for key, value in data.items()),
+        'data_attributes': u' '.join(u'data-{}="{}"'.format(key, value) for key, value in data.items()),
     }
 
     return wrap_fragment(frag, render_to_string('xblock_wrapper.html', template_context))
diff --git a/lms/templates/main.html b/lms/templates/main.html
index 4784bb6e65..7b1d23f224 100644
--- a/lms/templates/main.html
+++ b/lms/templates/main.html
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@
 </html>
 
 <%def name="login_query()">${
-  "?course_id={0}&enrollment_action={1}".format(
+  u"?course_id={0}&enrollment_action={1}".format(
     html.escape(course_id),
     html.escape(enrollment_action)
   ) if course_id and enrollment_action else ""