The Board of Senior Secondary Studies has signalled its intention to offer the ACT Scaling Test writing task digitally after trialling the initiative with three schools this year.

Board director John Stenhouse said 92 per cent of participants said they preferred doing the essay writing assessment on a computer.

"It's a case of lessening the stress that's on students by allowing them to write in the way that they normally write outside of school, things like Facebook and all the social media, they're using keyboards of some sort - they're not using a pen and paper," he said.

"It takes the students quite a bit less time to complete when they're doing it on a keyboard, so instead of a two and a half hour exam as it currently stands, we will probably be able to reduce that to at least two hours by putting it online and having it done digitally."

Moving the test to a digital platform would be a boon for students with visual impairment, Mr Stenhouse said, with computers allowing font sizes to be easily increased and test background colours changed.

He estimated it would cost about $50,000 to move the test online - a "very ballpark figure" as it was not yet known what technology would be used. The Australian Council of Education Research provided the trial technology.

Mr Stenhouse emphasised the decision would ultimately rest with the government and depend on whether funding was provided.

"It's not actually a huge investment in terms of the improvements it will lead to for students," he said.

The digital assessment aims were revealed in the BSSS's 2018-20 strategic plan, which also showed the body would prepare to deliver other scaling tests digitally in the future.

It will also try to introduce an online literacy and numeracy assessment for senior secondary students by 2020.

Canberra's year 12 students will receive their results from schools on December 11 and electronically on December 15.