diff --git a/app/models/spotlight/event.rb b/app/models/spotlight/event.rb
index 6a77dda39..777c538f2 100644
--- a/app/models/spotlight/event.rb
+++ b/app/models/spotlight/event.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
     belongs_to :resource, polymorphic: true
     belongs_to :exhibit, optional: true
 
-    serialize :data
+    serialize :data, coder: YAML
 
     self.inheritance_column = :event_class
   end
diff --git a/app/models/spotlight/job_tracker.rb b/app/models/spotlight/job_tracker.rb
index 4a490ffc3..a0444ee43 100644
--- a/app/models/spotlight/job_tracker.rb
+++ b/app/models/spotlight/job_tracker.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class JobTracker < ActiveRecord::Base
     has_many :job_trackers, as: :on, dependent: Rails.version > '6.1' ? :destroy_async : :destroy
     has_many :subevents, through: :job_trackers, source: :events
 
-    serialize :data
+    serialize :data, coder: YAML
 
     after_initialize do
       self.data ||= {}