diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/tests/test_xblock_wrappers.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/tests/test_xblock_wrappers.py
index cacde168e9..f25438d2c0 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/tests/test_xblock_wrappers.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/tests/test_xblock_wrappers.py
@@ -363,6 +363,7 @@ class TestStudioView(XBlockWrapperTestMixin, TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(html, rendered_content)
 
 
+@ddt.ddt
 class TestXModuleHandler(TestCase):
     """
     Tests that the xmodule_handler function correctly wraps handle_ajax
@@ -387,6 +388,21 @@ class TestXModuleHandler(TestCase):
         self.assertIsInstance(response, webob.Response)
         self.assertEqual(response.body, '{}')
 
+    @ddt.data(
+        u'{"test_key": "test_value"}',
+        '{"test_key": "test_value"}',
+    )
+    def test_xmodule_handler_with_data(self, response_data):
+        """
+        Tests that xmodule_handler function correctly wraps handle_ajax when handle_ajax response is either
+        str or unicode.
+        """
+
+        self.module.handle_ajax = Mock(return_value=response_data)
+        response = self.module.xmodule_handler(self.request)
+        self.assertIsInstance(response, webob.Response)
+        self.assertEqual(response.body, '{"test_key": "test_value"}')
+
 
 class TestXmlExport(XBlockWrapperTestMixin, TestCase):
     """
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
index 2ed2848a1e..89356d6831 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/x_module.py
@@ -881,21 +881,7 @@ class XModule(HTMLSnippet, XModuleMixin):
                 request_post[key] = map(FileObjForWebobFiles, request.POST.getall(key))
 
         response_data = self.handle_ajax(suffix, request_post)
-
-        try:
-            return Response(response_data, content_type='application/json')
-        except TypeError:
-            request_environ = getattr(request, 'environ')
-            log.exception(
-                'Response creation failed for problem url: %s, response_data type: %s, LANG: %s, '
-                'LC_ALL: %s and HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING: %s',
-                request_environ.get('HTTP_REFERER'),
-                type(response_data),
-                request_environ.get('LANG'),
-                request_environ.get('LC_ALL'),
-                request_environ.get('HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING')
-            )
-            raise
+        return Response(response_data, content_type='application/json', charset='UTF-8')
 
     def get_child(self, usage_id):
         if usage_id in self._child_cache: