Blyth Academy

Challenge

Meeting online learning demands 

Founded in 1977 with a mission to give students immersive, international education and travel programs, Blyth Academy has grown from its Ontario roots into six campuses and two virtual schools, earning a reputation as one of Canada’s leading private institutions for Grades 4–12.  

As demand for flexible online learning surged—both from local families seeking adaptable options and international students eager to access Ontario’s renowned education system—the academy’s virtual campuses experienced rapid growth. To maintain its long-term vision of delivering personalized and scalable online education, Blyth Academy began looking closely at ways to strengthen personalized engagement and provide consistent academic support in a digital first environment.  

For example, Blyth Academy supplemented its online learning experience with a tutoring service, giving students access to help as they progressed at their own pace. However, the service could not deliver the around-the-clock availability that students needed.  

“Our tutoring service proved unreliable,” explains Nathan Bishop, director of educational technology at Blyth Academy. “The quality of the tutors varied widely, and it was really expensive. At the same time, it didn’t achieve our intent of providing students with instant access to help. A student may be working at 2AM—who’s going to answer their questions then? We needed to find a way to get them that support no matter when.”  

Recently, Blyth Academy’s parent organization, Globeducate, introduced an initiative to explore how  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could enhance services across its schools. In line with its history of innovation, Blyth Academy used this opportunity to tap into the emerging possibilities of AI-enriched education to provide better support for students.  

“We’re not looking to replace teachers; we’re looking for an extra layer of support that every student can access reliably,” says Bishop. “Teachers receive plenty of student outreach for guidance on simple questions. With an AI chatbot, we could free them from some of these administrative tasks, while at the same time engaging our learners with more interactive content.”  

Solution

Embracing ongoing digital transformation

In its journey to embrace AI, Blyth Academy joined forces with its long-term partner, D2L. The academy has used the Brightspace platform as its learning management system (LMS) for over five years. After a demo of D2L’s Lumi Tutor, Blyth Academy immediately recognized its potential.  

“As soon as I heard about [D2L] Lumi Tutor, I knew that that’s what we needed. My favorite part of the tool is that it gives us so much more control than a public LLM [Large Language Model] like ChatGPT would. It only pulls answers from the content that we provide for it, helping us scaffold learning effectively and ensuring that students learn the skills and concepts that matter most.”  

–  Nathan Bishop, director of educational technology, Blyth Academy  

Working closely with D2L, Blyth Academy refined its D2L Lumi Tutor chatbot—which the academy refers to as a learning assistant—through an iterative process.   

“It was a collaborative effort between Blyth Academy and D2L,” says Bishop. “There was a lot of conversation, and we are still regularly having meetings to discuss best practices and brainstorm ideas. Having a partnership like that is important because a tool like [D2L] Lumi Tutor requires customization to work for your specific context.”  

To ensure that the solution continues to evolve in line with student and educator needs, Blyth Academy keeps track of the chatbot conversations through real-time reporting in the D2L Lumi dashboard.  

“Having the AI-enhanced dashboard is really helping us improve how our learning assistant works,” says Nathan Bishop. “It automatically flags conversations if a student doesn’t get an answer, which alerts us to gaps in the content and helps us fill them more proactively.”  

Introducing responsible AI Use

At the same time as deploying D2L Lumi Tutor, Blyth Academy introduced an AI Principles module into its curriculum to support students and help them use the new tool to their advantage.  

“We started building this module before we knew about [D2L] Lumi Tutor,” explains Bishop. “We could see that students were already using AI all the time, but they also often felt like they had to hide it. We wanted to help them use it responsibly and give practical advice: here’s how to cite something you got from an AI tool, here’s how to acknowledge to your teacher that you used it to brainstorm ideas.”  

The module covers topics such as bias awareness, academic honesty and digital citizenship. With the deployment of D2L Lumi Tutor, the academy added Lumi-specific training, explaining best practices such as how to prompt the learning assistant effectively.   

“Students appreciate being trusted to explore AI,” adds Bishop. “We’ve also received a lot of positive feedback from parents, who are happy with the guardrails around [D2L] Lumi Tutor compared to public LLMs.”  

Supporting International Growth and Reinforcing partnerships  

Blyth Academy’s evolution with Brightspace goes far beyond adopting an LMS – it’s about building a foundation for innovation and global expansion. By refining its use of the platform, Blyth Academy Online has unlocked the power of AI-enriched education while creating interactive, engaging courses for young learners accustomed to multimedia – rich digital environments and social platforms.   

This commitment has helped expand its international growth. Positive feedback from agents representing prospective international students highlights how Brightspace supports Blyth’s ability to scale globally. At its in-person campus in Florence, Italy, students can earn an Ontario diploma while learning abroad with Brightspace. They’ve embraced a flipped classroom approach; teachers can reserve in-person time for deeper discussion, lab work and collaborative learning- while Brightspace ensures continuity and personalization.   

“Brightspace is the best LMS out there. It’s a really clean, intuitive platform. We’ve noticed that the completion rates for our courses have been rising by 4% a year since moving to Brightspace.”  

– Nathan Bishop, director of educational technology, Blyth Academy 

This success is rooted in collaboration and partnership. “D2L have become part of our strategic innovation and planning,’ Nathan shares. ‘They’re actively collaborating and helping us with pedagogy; they’re inviting us to webinars and demos. Our customer success manager knows what we’re trying to accomplish and helps recommend the right tools for that.’”  

Result

Personalizing education at scale

With D2L Lumi Tutor integrated into the Brightspace platform, the learners at Blyth Academy Online can access real-time support at any time of the day, from getting answers to general admin questions to working through a complex concept step by step.   

“[D2L] Lumi Tutor is helping our students build problem solving and critical thinking skills rather than just giving them information,” says Bishop. “It lets them practice back and forth and try things out in a safe and tailored manner, including getting responses in their native language to help solidify their understanding. I’m hopeful that it will also help students who don’t have the confidence to talk to the teacher directly.”  

In just two and a half weeks, 10% of students have engaged with D2L Lumi Tutor, generating over 1,000 unique conversations—more than the previous tutoring service achieved in an entire year. This rapid adoption sets a new benchmark for innovation and inclusivity in education, demonstrating the strong demand for personalized, multilingual support. Blyth Academy expects this number to rise steadily and predicts that at least half of its online students will adopt the tool in the coming months.  

One of D2L Lumi Tutor’s most powerful advantages is how it frees educators from repetitive administrative tasks, allowing them to invest that energy to where it matters most: building meaningful connections with students and fostering dynamic, inclusive learning environments.   

“AI provides the opportunity for a more in-depth connection between student and teacher, because teachers don’t have to worry as much about admin work,” says Bishop. “And with less of that monotonous, routine work, we can make the job easier and more attractive, helping us retain good teachers.”  

Pioneering leading-edge education solutions

Looking to the future, Blyth Academy will expand its deployment of D2L Lumi Tutor. The school plans to introduce the feedback generator feature to help more students access high-quality feedback more quickly and will also use the chatbot on the academy’s website to handle frequently asked questions.  

“I hope we can be trailblazers in online education and the AI space,” concludes Bishop. “With D2L, we’re not just doing flashy things—[D2L] Lumi Tutor has a real positive impact and does exactly what we say it’s doing. Five years from now, all our competitors might have an AI LMS, but we had the foresight to do it first and become experts.”  

And for Blyth Academy, that foresight is just the beginning—their commitment to innovation is paving the way for what’s next in education.