diff --git a/contentcuration/contentcuration/viewsets/common.py b/contentcuration/contentcuration/viewsets/common.py
index 2e3d6b5c92..7ea63464b0 100644
--- a/contentcuration/contentcuration/viewsets/common.py
+++ b/contentcuration/contentcuration/viewsets/common.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ def unnest_dict(dictionary):
 class DotPathValueMixin(object):
     def get_value(self, dictionary):
         # get just field name
-        value = dictionary.get(self.field_name, dict())
+        value = dictionary.get(self.field_name, {})
 
         if value is None:
             return empty