Doing one-year program as second applicant (dependant)

[chepsky]

Hello ladies & gentlemen,

I'm already living in Canada with my wife. She has studied in here and now is working under the PGWP visa. I'm also working under Open Work Permit as her dependant.

We're gathering extra points here and there for the Express Entry and considering the idea of me doing a one-year online program to boost up our points. I have High School and this idea will give us extra 4 points.

So, first of all, let's consider the legal aspect. My work permit says "unless authorized prohibited from attending any educational institution, or taking any academic, professional or vocational training course". According to an immigration lawyer, there's no problem if I take an online program, as I could do it from anywhere in the world, right? If you guys have any objection on this, let me know.

Here's the CRS Calculator screenshot about this specifically:

My questions about it:

• Should it be a full-time program?
  
  
• How can I find out if the ECA (Educational Credential Assessment) organization that will assess my education experience will recognize the institution as valid (if the institution is outside Canada)? People are taking way longer to answer e-mails considering the times we're living now.
  
  
• From your experience, which organization takes less time to perform the equivalence, WES, University of Toronto, any other suggestion?
  
  
• Among the options, I'm considering a BA program that is called Top Up. It's a part-time one-year program that represents the last year of a Bachelor program and it would sum up to previous (not concluded) University programs that I've studied in the past. I'm not sure if this program would be valid for the PR purpose considering it's a part-time, although it would award me a Bachelor Certificate.

Your thoughts on this would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you!