This is a very helpful education option both my kids have enjoyed with 5 courses so far. The principal is helpful and a good problem solver. Our family likes that we can take the courses as we need them e.g. doing them as "reach ahead" in grade 8 for grade 9 and doing a BOA as an overload to our kids usual Catholic School's 8 credits/year. We also like the many courses that are offered. If there is a gap in learning such as in the summer or during COVID it was great that our children could use BAO as "summer school." Non-synchronous self-directed learning is difficult. Giving the kids the 365 days but no real "to do lists" with timed learning expectations just makes both of our kids (and the two other families we referred) procrastinate. Our daughter (due to COVID) has to do 2 semester of online university already and there it is much more clear what the kids have to do when. The teachers post a "to-do Check list" and the lectures are given by the educator who makes the test questions. But even online it can be done as a real teacher giving the lesson and taping it. The Grade 10 math class is really difficult to learn from the Khan Academy videos. I tried to express my concerns with the Department head of the Math Department that the kids have not learned what they are asked in the marked tests but have not been able to make the point that I might have to try to switch from BAO to Blyth Night School or Blyth Orbit to have a teacher TEACH the material. Our family finds a short video (often just a not very related Kahn Academy clip) not instructional enough for an academic level course. Our son admitted he felt unprepared to perform at his usual level (honour roll student) in the midterm and politely asked for more study material. He was told to "do the lesson/quizzes' AGAIN without further educational resources, exam reviews or practice questions provided. The Department head had said our son could try himself to find some questions (in that big Nelson book). But nobody seems to see the problem here. The CURRICULUM is not sufficiently instructed for what is aske din the tests (likely not the same teacher teaching who made the questions?). Disappointingly, a 70% was given for that Midterm. We would have clearly preferred he would have given more educational resources before the test (he has the email to show he asked for more preparation opportunities). The more we ask for help and admit the course is a struggle the worse the "judged" marks get. It is a struggle. It is so different with Western University online. The lecturer just explains the lesson (e.g. Krebs Cycle which is also not easy) in his own words in a 30-minute video where he/she just talks to powerpoint slights. Those slides are available and are good preparations for the tests. The test then asks what was taught. Some BAO courses do not teach the difficult things in detail but ask the difficult things in detail. Our son had not issues with the Geography course where it is possible to lookup gaps but in math it has to be taught comprehensively. It would be nice if children have the interest to do extra work to give them more educational materials and study materials, especially exam reviews. Even just one IN PERSON lesson taped on video that reviews what is going to be on the midterm would help. The new BrightSpace expects the kids to video their answers and to explain math with words - but the course is not taught by a teacher using her/his own words to explain the math. Even if this is not a synchronous course - there should be video-taped lessons uses (not Kahn academy). The math behind the grading is also a problem. If and important test (like the midterm) has only 3 questions (and one question the students makes a mistake, e.g. being nervous being on camera - like our chid did) then you can already not do better than 75% any more. Again, the university (UWO) uses 40 questions in a Midterm. Mathematically, you should not create a %grade that goes into the final average out of 3 questions. If this low number is allowed then a test with 2 questions would result in 50% grade for just struggling with one question. This practice of NOT ENOUGH questions per test is artificially lowering the achievement in % potential of the students. Example: Our child (despite his struggles with this course) was at 90% before the Midterm - out of nervousness about the unfamiliar "in person" video format for the Midterm overlooked that he was not to calculate one side but the other side of a question that at a triangle. So ONE mistake but because he only had 3 questions total got a Midterm in the 70s that pushed his overall average under 90 - for one question wrong. It is helpful when deciding to buy a course to be able to preview the marked items but there should be also the information about how many questions will be on each marked multiples choice test - low numbers should not be allowed because one mistake affects the %grade too much. This was a problem in Grade 12 Biology as well. The student has to be able to show and bring into his average his knowledge in questions he is able to answer correctly as well.