This article describes a recent collaborative project (PASS-IT) which investigated the use of online assessment in secondary education in Scotland. The aim of PASS-IT was to explore the potential of formative and summative assessment in secondary education, and to build on previous research into the applicability and validity of online assessments. An overview of the project is given. Examples of online questions are provided in section 2 with a discussion of some of the issues and benefits. Section 3 outlines the main research findings of the project, which provide evidence for the validity of online assessments. (Contains 3 figures.)