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An introduction to the Pearson Remote Invigilation Service

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In 2022 the MacLeod family from Alberta, Canada contacted Pearson’s CEO, Andy Bird after seeing him on a news programme talking about our qualifications being 'location agnostic' and that anyone could sit a Pearson exam, wherever they were in the world.

They told him that their daughter, Teagan was due to sit her International GCSE exams, but their nearest exam centre was over 2,000 miles (around 3218km) away in Toronto.

Wanting to help if he could, Andy Bird introduced the family to the Pearson School Qualifications team, and in particular, to Hayley White, Vice President of Assessment, Standards and Services and Kristina Altoft, Head of Assessment Services. From that point on, work began in earnest. Hayley and Kristina began brainstorming with the team from Pearson Online Academy about using a combination of Pearson Edexcel onscreen assessments and remote proctoring to support Teagan – and the Pearson Remote Invigilation Service was born!

Since completing her exams remotely (more on that below!), Teagan and her family have moved to and settled in the UK, she has taken her A levels and continues to study. In August 2024 she joined Pearson as an intern for four months and worked with us on the Remote Invigilation team.

Teagan's remote invigilation story

Before she left to continue her studies, we caught up with Teagan to find out more about her experience as a student, how our remote invigilation service enabled her to take her International GCSE exams without having to travel and what she thinks about the future of remote Invigilation.

We asked her to tell us a bit about herself, why she decided to sit her exams remotely, what it was like taking remotely invigilated exams, what her next steps were and what her top tips are for taking exams remotely.

Watch Teagan's video

What happened next?

In the summer of 2023, we conducted a pilot in partnership with King’s InterHigh, which enabled 150 candidates to complete their exams from home via remote invigilation.

The candidates, ranging from a Formula 4 race car driver to students with special educational needs, took more than 1,500 different exams between them. Due to their locations and unique circumstances, none of them would have been able to sit their International GCSEs without the Remote Invigilation Service.

For the 2024 exam series, we expanded the service to include two more centres, which increased the number of candidates taking their exams remotely from approximately 150 students in summer 2023 to 560 students taking more than 5,000 exams between them remotely in 2024 -a 270% increase!

And in summer 2025 that number is going to increase again; we will be working with a total of 10 schools and over 1,000 students, each with their own unique circumstances. Watch this space!

Find out more about remote invigilation

For more information on the Pearson Remote Invigilation Service, please contact us. 

 

Photography credit: banner image via Ground Picture / Shutterstock

 

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James Yuill

James Yuill

James Yuill is Communication and Engagement Lead within Pearson’s Assessment Services customer experience team. He has worked for Pearson for over 20 years and moved to the then new Pearson Tutoring Team in 2021 to work directly with customers. In 2023, he moved to Pearson’s Assessment Services team as Communication and Engagement Lead, and is now part of the Remote Invigilation team.

James likes working with words. He says “I like to get to the heart of the matter with a plain English, less is more approach. I like to think I can take a couple of pages of A4 and turn them into one. It is a skill - honest!”

He loves music, movies, photography, walking and travel.