diff --git a/cms/static/coffee/src/models/module.coffee b/cms/static/coffee/src/models/module.coffee
index c3988b26e0..6e5c8ac785 100644
--- a/cms/static/coffee/src/models/module.coffee
+++ b/cms/static/coffee/src/models/module.coffee
@@ -10,7 +10,3 @@ class CMS.Models.Module extends Backbone.Model
     @unset('module')
     delete attributes.module
     super(attributes)
-
-  save: (args...) ->
-    @set(data: @module.save()) if @module
-    super(args...)
diff --git a/cms/static/coffee/src/views/module_edit.coffee b/cms/static/coffee/src/views/module_edit.coffee
index b9d0245ed9..8a9120db9e 100644
--- a/cms/static/coffee/src/views/module_edit.coffee
+++ b/cms/static/coffee/src/views/module_edit.coffee
@@ -3,58 +3,65 @@ class CMS.Views.ModuleEdit extends Backbone.View
   className: 'xmodule_edit'
 
   initialize: ->
-    @delegate()
+    @module = @options.module
+    @module.onUpdate(@save)
 
-    @$component_editor = @$el.find('.component-editor')
-    @$metadata = @$component_editor.find('.metadata_edit')
+    @setEvents()
 
-  delegate: ->
+  $component_editor: -> @$el.find('.component-editor')
+
+  setEvents: ->
     id = @$el.data('id')
 
-    events = {}
-    events["click .component-editor[data-id=#{ id }] .cancel-button"] = 'cancel'
-    events["click .component-editor[data-id=#{ id }] .save-button"] = 'save'
-    events["click .component-actions[data-id=#{ id }] .edit-button"] = 'edit'
+    @events = {}
+    @events["click .component-editor[data-id=#{ id }] .cancel-button"] = 'clickCancelButton'
+    @events["click .component-editor[data-id=#{ id }] .save-button"] = 'clickSaveButton'
+    @events["click .component-actions[data-id=#{ id }] .edit-button"] = 'clickEditButton'
 
-    @delegateEvents(events)
+    @delegateEvents()
 
   metadata: ->
     # cdodge: package up metadata which is separated into a number of input fields
     # there's probably a better way to do this, but at least this lets me continue to move onwards
     _metadata = {}
 
-    if @$metadata
+    $metadata = @$component_editor().find('.metadata_edit')
+
+    if $metadata
       # walk through the set of elments which have the 'xmetadata_name' attribute and
       # build up a object to pass back to the server on the subsequent POST
-      _metadata[$(el).data("metadata-name")] = el.value for el in $('[data-metadata-name]', @$metadata)
+      _metadata[$(el).data("metadata-name")] = el.value for el in $('[data-metadata-name]', $metadata)
 
     _metadata
 
-  save: (event) =>
-    event.preventDefault()
-    @model.save(
-      metadata: @metadata()
-    ).done((preview) =>
+  save: (data) =>
+    @model.set(data)
+    @model.save().done((preview) =>
       alert("Your changes have been saved.")
-      
-      new_el = $(preview)
-      @$el.replaceWith(new_el)
-      @$el = new_el
 
-      @delegate()
-
-      @model.module = XModule.loadModule(@$el)
+      $preview = $(preview)
+      @$el.replaceWith($preview)
+      @setElement($preview)
+      @module.constructor(@$el)
       XModule.loadModules(@$el)
+
     ).fail( ->
       alert("There was an error saving your changes. Please try again.")
     )
 
-  cancel: (event) ->
+  clickSaveButton: (event) =>
+    event.preventDefault()
+    data = @module.save()
+    data.metadata = @metadata()
+
+    @save(data)
+
+  clickCancelButton: (event) ->
     event.preventDefault()
     @$el.removeClass('editing')
-    @$component_editor.slideUp(150)
+    @$component_editor().slideUp(150)
 
-  edit: (event) ->
+  clickEditButton: (event) ->
     event.preventDefault()
     @$el.addClass('editing')
-    @$component_editor.slideDown(150)
+    @$component_editor().slideDown(150)
diff --git a/cms/static/js/base.js b/cms/static/js/base.js
index c560524676..78b61fff0f 100644
--- a/cms/static/js/base.js
+++ b/cms/static/js/base.js
@@ -14,16 +14,13 @@ $(document).ready(function() {
     $newComponentStep2 = $('.new-component-step-2');
     $newComponentButton = $('.new-component-button');
 
-    $(document).bind('XModule.loaded', function(e, element) {
-        if ($(element).hasClass('.xmodule_display')) {
-            return
-        }
+    $(document).bind('XModule.loaded.edit', function(e, element, module) {
         var previewType = $(element).data('preview-type');
         var moduleType = $(element).data('type');
         new CMS.Views.ModuleEdit({
             el: element,
+            module: module,
             model: new CMS.Models.Module({
-                module: $(element).data('module'),
                 id: $(element).data('id'),
                 type: moduleType == 'None' ? null : moduleType,
                 previewType: previewType == 'None' ? null : previewType,
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/discussion/display.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/discussion/display.coffee
index 27a67f5aab..a350cf9866 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/discussion/display.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/discussion/display.coffee
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-class @InlineDiscussion
+class @InlineDiscussion extends XModule.Descriptor
   constructor: (element) ->
     @el = $(element).find('.discussion-module')
     @view = new DiscussionModuleView(el: @el)
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/json.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/json.coffee
index 4dc88310ba..b795970b73 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/json.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/json.coffee
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-class @JSONEditingDescriptor
+class @JSONEditingDescriptor extends XModule.Descriptor
   constructor: (@element) ->
     @edit_box = CodeMirror.fromTextArea($(".edit-box", @element)[0], {
       mode: { name: "javascript", json: true }
     })
 
-  save: -> JSON.parse @edit_box.getValue()
+  save: ->
+    data: JSON.parse @edit_box.getValue()
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/xml.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/xml.coffee
index 286da45dc1..47c993e78d 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/xml.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/raw/edit/xml.coffee
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-class @XMLEditingDescriptor
+class @XMLEditingDescriptor extends XModule.Descriptor
   constructor: (@element) ->
     @edit_box = CodeMirror.fromTextArea($(".edit-box", @element)[0], {
       mode: "xml"
     })
 
-  save: -> @edit_box.getValue()
+  save: ->
+    data: @edit_box.getValue()
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/sequence/edit.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/sequence/edit.coffee
index cd047798a4..e46e91e11e 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/sequence/edit.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/sequence/edit.coffee
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-class @SequenceDescriptor
+class @SequenceDescriptor extends XModule.Descriptor
   constructor: (@element) ->
     @$tabs = $(@element).find("#sequence-list")
     @$tabs.sortable()
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/vertical/edit.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/vertical/edit.coffee
index da4c38999a..2945af009a 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/vertical/edit.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/vertical/edit.coffee
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-class @VerticalDescriptor
+class @VerticalDescriptor extends XModule.Descriptor
   constructor: (@element) ->
     @$items = $(@element).find(".vert-mod")
     @$items.sortable()
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/seq_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/seq_module.py
index 6abe0a0885..bcd2932537 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/seq_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/seq_module.py
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ class SequenceModule(XModule):
                 'progress_status': Progress.to_js_status_str(progress),
                 'progress_detail': Progress.to_js_detail_str(progress),
                 'type': child.get_icon_class(),
+                'id': child.id,
             }
             if childinfo['title']=='':
                 childinfo['title'] = child.metadata.get('display_name','')
diff --git a/common/static/coffee/src/xmodule.coffee b/common/static/coffee/src/xmodule.coffee
index 59925f4dac..4e3e7fec50 100644
--- a/common/static/coffee/src/xmodule.coffee
+++ b/common/static/coffee/src/xmodule.coffee
@@ -10,8 +10,13 @@
       return
 
     try
-      $(element).data('module', new window[moduleType](element))
-      $(document).trigger('XModule.loaded', [element])
+      module = new window[moduleType](element)
+      if $(element).hasClass('xmodule_edit')
+        $(document).trigger('XModule.loaded.edit', [element, module])
+
+      if $(element).hasClass('xmodule_display')
+        $(document).trigger('XModule.loaded.display', [element, module])
+
     catch error
       console.error "Unable to load #{moduleType}: #{error.message}" if console
 
@@ -29,3 +34,40 @@
       modules = $(selector)
 
     modules.each (idx, element) -> XModule.loadModule element
+
+class @XModule.Descriptor
+
+  callbacks: []
+
+  ###
+  Register a callback method to be called when the state of this
+  descriptor is updated. The callback will be passed the results
+  of calling the save method on this descriptor.
+  ###
+  onUpdate: (callback) ->
+    @callbacks.push(callback)
+
+  ###
+  Notify registered callbacks that the state of this descriptor has changed
+  ###
+  update: =>
+    data = @save()
+    callback(data) for callback in @callbacks
+
+  ###
+  Bind the module to an element. This may be called multiple times,
+  if the element content has changed and so the module needs to be rebound
+
+  @method: constructor
+  @param {html element} the .xmodule_edit section containing all of the descriptor content
+  ###
+  constructor: (@element) -> return
+
+  ###
+  Return the current state of the descriptor (to be written to the module store)
+
+  @method: save
+  @returns {object} An object containing children and data attributes (both optional).
+                    The contents of the attributes will be saved to the server
+  ###
+  save: -> return {}
diff --git a/lms/templates/seq_module.html b/lms/templates/seq_module.html
index 8ff3e096dd..cfacfa92c8 100644
--- a/lms/templates/seq_module.html
+++ b/lms/templates/seq_module.html
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@
         ## implementation note: will need to figure out how to handle combining detail
         ## statuses of multiple modules in js.
         <li>
-          <a class="seq_${item['type']} inactive progress-${item['progress_status']}" data-element="${idx+1}">
+        <a class="seq_${item['type']} inactive progress-${item['progress_status']}"
+           data-id="${item['id']}"
+           data-element="${idx+1}">
             <p>${item['title']}</p>
           </a>
         </li>