diff --git a/base-theme/layouts/partials/external_resource_link.html b/base-theme/layouts/partials/external_resource_link.html
index da634d9e2..7497f89be 100644
--- a/base-theme/layouts/partials/external_resource_link.html
+++ b/base-theme/layouts/partials/external_resource_link.html
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{{- $text := default .title .text | htmlEscape | page.RenderString -}}
+{{- $text := default .title .text -}}
 {{- $href := default "" .external_url -}}
 {{- $isBroken := default false .is_broken -}}
 {{- $backupUrl := default "" .backup_url -}}
diff --git a/base-theme/layouts/shortcodes/resource_link.html b/base-theme/layouts/shortcodes/resource_link.html
index a07957158..1698ca18c 100644
--- a/base-theme/layouts/shortcodes/resource_link.html
+++ b/base-theme/layouts/shortcodes/resource_link.html
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 {{- $title := index .Params 1 | safeHTML -}}
 {{- $anchor_id := index .Params 2 | default ""}}
 {{- range where $.Site.Pages "Params.uid" $uuid -}}
-{{- if eq .Params.content_type "external-resource" -}}
+  {{- if eq .Params.content_type "external-resource" -}}
+    {{- if findRE "^(?:http|https|ftp|mailto)" $title -}}
+      {{- $title = (replace $title "/" "\\/") -}}
+    {{- end -}}
     {{- partial "external_resource_link"
       (merge .Params (dict "text" $title))
     -}}
diff --git a/course-v2/layouts/partials/course_description.html b/course-v2/layouts/partials/course_description.html
index 59ff5a24e..e439c574a 100644
--- a/course-v2/layouts/partials/course_description.html
+++ b/course-v2/layouts/partials/course_description.html
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ <h4 class="course-detail-title">
   </h4>
   {{ if $shouldCollapseDescription }}
   <div id="collapsed-description" class="description">
-    {{- .context.RenderString (truncate 320 $courseData.course_description) -}}
+    {{- truncate 320 (.context.RenderString $courseData.course_description) -}}
     {{- partial "link_button.html" (dict "text" "Show more" "id" "expand-description")  -}}
   </div>
   <div id="expanded-description" class="description d-none">