Pupils to sit first online exams

Pupils to sit first online exams:

"The first of the 140,000 candidates will turn over their Standard Grade papers at 0900 BST on Tuesday.

And later this month 120 pupils and students in schools and colleges across the country will use computers to sit a multiple choice exam in biotechnology."

I was wondering how long it would take before students had exams online. Will it only be fact tests? Information assessment? I can see it as a useful tool for assessing skills and basic knowledge or factual information related to any field. What about discussions, essays, extended pieces of writing? I would impagine a number of people these days would feel comfortable doing tests and exams online. What if the system crashes? What if the information can't be posted? It would certainly save paper and maybe even exam nerves. There might be the possibility of doing some things at home but that would probably mean a time limit to preclude cheating. I think it's worth pursuing. In the end I guess we'll have international exams and tests. That would certainly be interesting.