diff --git a/edx_django_utils/monitoring/tests/test_custom_monitoring.py b/edx_django_utils/monitoring/tests/test_custom_monitoring.py
index d0e17139..44594104 100644
--- a/edx_django_utils/monitoring/tests/test_custom_monitoring.py
+++ b/edx_django_utils/monitoring/tests/test_custom_monitoring.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from unittest.mock import Mock, call, patch
 
 import ddt
-from django.test import TestCase
+from django.test import TestCase, override_settings
 
 from edx_django_utils.cache import RequestCache
 from edx_django_utils.monitoring import MonitoringSupportMiddleware, accumulate, get_current_transaction, increment
@@ -113,11 +113,20 @@ def test_accumulate_with_illegal_value(
         # Assert call args to newrelic.agent.add_custom_parameter().
         mock_newrelic_agent.add_custom_parameter.assert_has_calls(nr_agent_calls_expected, any_order=True)
 
-    @patch('edx_django_utils.monitoring.MonitoringSupportMiddleware._tag_root_span_with_error')
-    def test_error_tagging(self, mock_tag_error):
+    @patch('ddtrace.Tracer.current_root_span')
+    def test_error_tagging(self, mock_get_root_span):
         # Ensure that we continue to support tagging exceptions in MonitoringSupportMiddleware.
-        MonitoringSupportMiddleware(self.mock_response).process_exception('fake request', 'fake exception')
-        mock_tag_error.assert_called_with('fake exception')
+        # This is only implemented for DatadogBackend at the moment.
+        fake_exception = Exception()
+        mock_root_span = Mock()
+        mock_get_root_span.return_value = mock_root_span
+        with override_settings(OPENEDX_TELEMETRY=['edx_django_utils.monitoring.DatadogBackend']):
+            MonitoringSupportMiddleware(self.mock_response).process_exception(
+                'fake request', fake_exception
+            )
+            mock_root_span.set_exc_info.assert_called_with(
+                type(fake_exception), fake_exception, fake_exception.__traceback__
+            )
 
     @patch('newrelic.agent')
     def test_get_current_transaction(self, mock_newrelic_agent):