diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/tasks.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/tasks.py
index 0725ca88c7..01bbee2364 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/tasks.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/tasks.py
@@ -749,7 +749,7 @@ def import_olx(self, user_id, course_key_string, archive_path, archive_name, lan
     # Locate the uploaded OLX archive (and download it from S3 if necessary)
     # Do everything in a try-except block to make sure everything is properly cleaned up.
     data_root = path(settings.GITHUB_REPO_ROOT)
-    subdir = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(repr(courselike_key))
+    subdir = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(repr(courselike_key).encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
     course_dir = data_root / subdir
     try:
         self.status.set_state(u'Unpacking')