Revamped Curriculum for Mercy Learning Online Summer Courses
Mercy Learning Online (MLOL) summer courses begin on Monday, June 15. Twenty-one Mercy educators, four new to the summer program, are prepared to welcome students to the Schoology platform. MLOL is offering 12 half-credit classes this summer, the most popular being American Government, Health and Economics. Thirteen credit recovery classes are also being offered over two, three-week summer sessions. View a complete list of courses here.
MLOL brings together Mercy educators and students from across our schools in courses designed by Mercy teachers and administrators. This year, MLOL instituted a new process, “virtual curriculum revision,” to review and revise selected courses. Two teams of educators collaborated to revamp the Health and American Government courses: Elizabeth Decosse (Motto Project Coordinator, Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women) and Dawn Odom (Principal, St. Vincent’s Academy) collaborated on revisions to Health and Erin Battisto (Social Studies Chair, Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School) and Alexis Browsh (Social Studies Teacher, Merion Mercy Academy) collaborated on American Government.
Virtual meetings began in January. Course material was reviewed and discussed through video conference calls. Teachers drew on their knowledge of content, expertise in teaching, understanding of course standards, and varied assessments to make changes and additions. Browsh commented, “The curriculum revision was a welcome chance to look at a course from a new perspective and tackle the challenges of preparing comprehensive and challenging content that would be appropriate for a range of student skills and backgrounds.” The original courses designed by Mercy educators provided a a solid foundation on which to start the revision, but as we experience in the classrooms of any school, curriculum development is ongoing. Odom feels strongly, “Health is such an evolving subject. There is always room for expanding a student’s knowledge when it comes to emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health.”
In addition to enhancing MLOL coursework, the revision process also gave these four Mercy educators an opportunity for professional development through sharing best practices, new ideas, content and resources with educators across our Mercy schools. Mercy Learning Online courses will grow more robust as the revision process continues with other courses. If you are interested in working on a curriculum revision team, please contact Nell Stetser.
