MSON

At FWCD, students in grades 11 and 12 may apply to take Malone Schools Online Network (MSON) courses, which serve as a high school enrichment elective course and meet twice a week during the regular school day. Each course takes a blended approach, combining synchronous instruction, real-time video conferencing seminars, with asynchronous instruction, recorded lectures and exercises that students complete outside of class. The result lies somewhere between a “flipped classroom” and a “virtual Harkness table.” Each course has a minimum of six students and a maximum of 16, allowing for a virtual discussion seminar that is delivered in high-definition classroom set ups.

A steering committee of six heads of Malone Schools, including FWCD, established MSON with John Malone’s endorsement. MSON provides upper-level students at registered Malone Schools with a variety of superior online courses offered in online classrooms that enhance each member school’s existing curriculum. These courses promote the values of the Malone Family Foundation and are taught by teachers from other Malone Schools in the network. The teaching professionals are experts in their fields; they have experience with independent school education and share a commitment to excellence, small class sizes and personal relationships. Students enrolled in these courses demonstrate sufficient independence and commitment to succeed in a virtual discussion seminar setting.

MSON Course Offerings

Students must make an application and be accepted into an MSON course. MSON courses serve as a high school enrichment elective course (fifth academic) in the FWCD program, and the course counts in a student’s GPA. Following completion of the course, Stanford University will supply a transcript for the class to College Counseling so students can submit it with their college application materials. Those students who take an MSON course will work with the Upper School to create a more individualized schedule in order to accommodate the designated MSON class. Each course has a minimum of six students and a maximum of 16. The result is a virtual discussion seminar that is delivered in high-definition classroom setups.

Classes take place twice a week during the normal school day for live, synchronous instruction that utilizes multiple-line, high-definition distance learning. Courses are taught by Stanford University professors and faculty from the participating independent schools.

2019-20 Course Offerings

Language

Arabic I and II
Chinese V
The Invention of Modern-Day Food Writing: Excursions in France’s Gastronomic Library

Humanities

Advanced Macroeconomics
Advanced Microeconomics
American Democracy and Civil Engagement
The American Food System: Past, Present, Future
Are We Rome?
Bob Dylan’s America
Building Utopia
Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop: If Only You Could See This Place
Creative Writing in the Digital Age
Diversity in Global Comparative Perspective
Environmental Bioethics
The Fiction of James Joyce
Man’s Inhumanity to Man: Genocide & Human Rights in the 20th Century
Narratives of Place/The Place of Narrative on the N. American Prairie
Philosophy in Pop Culture
Playing God? The Ethics of Biomedical Advancements
Positive Psychology
Stolen Lives: Captivity in History and Contemporary Contexts
Think Global, Debate Local
Wartime Dissent in American History

STEM

Advanced Applied Math through Finance
Advanced Topics in Chemistry
CSI: MSON – Forensic Science
Data Structures and Design Patterns
Explorations in Computer Science: Solving Multidisciplinary Problems with Computational Methods Genetics and Genomics
Introduction to Organic Chemistry
Multivariable Calculus
Robotics

MSON Technology

State of the art technology links students with their peers and faculty: High-definition LCD displays and two high-definition cameras, in conjunction with touch-screen speaker phones, facilitate distance learning activities among the participating schools—all at once. Stanford University maintains the connective technology, and all MSON schools have access to both live and recorded content, as well as software that allows for student participation when away from the dedicated distance-learning lab

Malone Family Foundation

Founded by John Malone of Colorado, the Malone Family Foundation has established scholarships for students in grades 7 through 9 who are in the top of their class and have the desire and drive to educate themselves to the very best of their ability, but whose families cannot afford the tuition and expenses required by leading independent schools. The foundation sought out excellent partners: independent secondary schools with an intense interest in educating the gifted and talented. The foundation now supports 50 schools: 49 independent day schools and the Stanford University Online High School (OHS). The 49 independent schools each have received a $2 million grant to establish an endowment in support of a Malone Scholars Program at their school. FWCD is the only school in Texas with this distinction.

Quicklinks

MSON Course Offerings

2019-20 Course Offerings

MSON Technology

Malone Family Foundation

Quicklinks

2019-20 MSON Consortium of Schools