The in house development of an online assessment tool, OASIS, has provided a unique opportunity to research the use of online assessment in teaching and learning across the university. The developing relationship between IT staff, educational designers and academics serves as a model for integrated and evolving management systems which demonstrate how academic research is informing improvements in applying educational technology. A framework, the "Bridge Support Framework for Online Learning", is proposed for the support and implementation of online learning systems. A case study in online assessment in a microeconomics subject describes the development of this framework in response to a "systems" failure when using the online assessment software tool during a major assessment event for a large external student cohort. As the university moves towards an open source learning management system for 2008, the range of online assessment methods will increase. It is here that our case study and the proposed "Bridge Support Framework" have potential value in learning from history to improve processes and procedures for the future. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)