I honestly think it will be a sad state of affairs if Brown or any college starts expecting students to take AP classes online. The real question is not “how many AP classes have you taken” but “how have you challenged yourself academically?” There are many ways of doing that without AP classes. BTW, that is a question I often ask students in interviews.
Brown has always stated that your transcript is considered in context with your high school’s curriculum. My daughter got into Brown with 3 APs – her school offered 6, and 2 of those were in languages she didn’t take. (And I would have only endorsed her taking online APs if she came to me and said, “I’m so bored in school I need to take more challenging classes.” And NOT if she said, “I need to take AP classes to get into college.”)