The activity log is where learners record their off-the-job training time. How you move to it depends on where you are starting from. This article covers both routes and explains how to enable and configure the activity log.
Who this is for: administrators responsible for tenant configuration and for the timing of the change across your programmes. Managing activity log tenant settings requires the Allow managing activity log tenant settings permission, which the Manage tenant settings role holds by default.
Which route applies to you
- You have a new tenant. There is no existing time or programmes to move, so you only need to enable the activity log. Follow Before you enable the activity log, Enable the activity log and After you enable the activity log.
- You currently record off-the-job hours against evidence. You are moving to the activity log, so Aptem also moves the time your learners have already logged. Follow all the sections, including Moving from evidence-based hours.
On this page
- Which route applies to you
- Before you enable the activity log
- Enable the activity log
- After you enable the activity log
- Moving from evidence-based hours
- Related articles
Before you enable the activity log
Programme lock-in
Once the activity log is enabled for a programme and at least one learner on that programme has recorded activity, you cannot disable it for that programme. This protects data consistency, audit integrity and a clear, continuous record of learner activity.
Choose your programmes carefully, especially during early access or a phased rollout. You can enable all programmes or only selected ones.
If you have a new tenant
- Decide which programmes will use the activity log.
- Decide your tenant settings: daily time limit, hours types, unpaid time and file uploads. You can review each in Enable the activity log.
- Brief your tutors and learners before learners start logging.
If you are moving from evidence-based hours
Enabling a programme means its time is no longer recorded against evidence, so plan the order rather than switching everything on at once.
- Agree who at your organisation makes the change, and in what order the programmes go.
- Start with a straightforward programme rather than your most complex one.
- Amend your reporting to the new OData feed. This is easier to do before the change than after. See Your reporting.
- Give your tutors and learners notice, so they know where their time lives and what to expect. There are articles for both in Related articles.
Enable the activity log
The activity log is enabled at tenant level, with the option to control which programmes have access. These steps apply to both routes.
-
Go to tenant settings
Sign in to Aptem and go to your tenant settings. -
Open the activity log configuration
In tenant settings, find Activity log and select Configure. -
Enable the feature
Select Enable to switch the activity log on for your tenant. -
Set your activity settings
Configure how the activity log behaves for your tenant before you choose which programmes can use it:- Daily activity time limit: the most a learner can log in a single day, from 1 to 9,999 hours (default: 12).
- Hours types collected: the types learners can log against: off-the-job training, English and maths, and other.
- Unpaid time: lets learners declare logged time as completed unpaid, outside their working hours.
- File uploads: lets learners attach one file to an activity, up to 10MB. Video and email files cannot be uploaded. Every file is checked for malware automatically, and only files that pass the check can be downloaded.
-
Choose programme access
Decide how the activity log is rolled out:- All programmes: every learner across all programmes has access.
- Only selected programmes: choose specific programmes from the list.
-
Save your settings
Select Save. The activity log is now available to eligible learners and tutors, and appears in the main navigation for users on enabled programmes.
Note: File uploads are for light supporting material, such as a photo or short document. They do not replace portfolio evidence, which learners should still add to their learning plan. We recommend you brief your tutors and learners on this before you switch the setting on.
After you enable the activity log
Access and permissions
No additional permissions are needed for learners or tutors. Once the activity log is enabled:
- Learners automatically gain access to log activity.
- Tutors automatically gain access to review activity.
- No further role or permission configuration is required.
This does not cover the activity log QA role, which is assigned separately. See The activity log QA role.
When learners see the activity log
Learners see the activity log only if:
- their programme has been enabled, and
- they are enrolled on that programme.
As soon as both conditions are met, learners can begin logging activity straight away.
Automatically captured time
Time captured automatically, for example when a learner completes eLearning content or when placement hours are verified, arrives in the activity log as a draft for the learner to complete. Aptem cannot know whether the time was worked during working hours or in the learner's own time, and only the learner can answer that. Draft time does not count towards off-the-job hours until the learner completes it and a tutor accepts it.
The activity log QA role
Administrators with the activity log QA role can reject or delete an activity log entry that has already been accepted, adding a rejection reason where needed.
This changes what tutors and MI Managers should expect once an entry is accepted: acceptance is no longer necessarily final. If a mistake needs correcting after the fact, an administrator with the QA role can still reject or delete the entry, with a reason recorded against it.
Moving from evidence-based hours
This section applies only if you currently record off-the-job hours against evidence. If you have a new tenant, you can skip it.
How the move works
Enabling a programme and moving your historical time are two separate actions. Enabling a programme does not move the historical time on its own, and the move does not run overnight or on a schedule. They happen in a particular order:
- Aptem moves your existing logged time to the activity log, so your data is already there when you opt in.
- Aptem's dashboards and reports switch to reading from the activity log.
- You enable the activity log for your tenant and choose which programmes use it, at your own pace.
What changes for an enabled programme
The activity log becomes the only place time is recorded for that programme. The hours fields are removed from the evidence submission journey, so the same hours cannot be entered in two places.
Evidence itself is unaffected. Learners still submit evidence, and tutors still assess it. Only the recording of time moves.
What happens to time already logged
When the move runs for your tenant, your learners' existing logged time is copied into the activity log.
Nothing is deleted. Your evidence records are left exactly as they are and remain visible on learners' learning plans. The move copies the time across rather than relocating it, and it never writes to your existing records.
The status your existing entries will have
Assessment decisions are preserved. An entry does not come back for review because it moved.
| Where the time stood before | Status in the activity log |
|---|---|
| Waiting to be marked | Submitted |
| Accepted | Accepted |
| Referred back to the learner | Rejected |
Where the outcome was a referral, the assessor's most recent comment is carried across as the rejection reason, so the learner can still see what was asked of them. Long comments are shortened to 500 characters.
The move never produces the statuses Resubmitted and Draft. An entry can only reach those statuses through the activity log itself.
How to tell a carried-across entry from one logged directly
Carried-across entries keep a description built from the record the time was originally logged against:
- "Evidence note:" followed by the text of the note, where the time was recorded against a note. Where the note contained only an image or formatting, the description is "Evidence note:" on its own.
- "Hours uploaded against evidence:" followed by the file name, where the time was recorded against an uploaded file or an external assignment.
Formatting and images are stripped out, and a long note is shortened to 1,000 characters.
Entries that were already activity log entries keep whatever description their author gave them, with no prefix.
What does not carry across
Not every historical record can be moved in the first pass. Time is moved where the record is complete: it has hours recorded, it is attached to a learning plan component, the kind of hours is recorded, and there is a record of when the activity took place.
Records that fail any of those checks, and records belonging to learners whose data has been anonymised, are counted and set aside rather than moved. They stay where they are and are being handled separately.
The most common case is time attached to a learning plan component that has since been deleted. There is nothing for that time to attach to in the activity log.
Programmes you have not enabled yet
Programmes carry on as they are. Time is recorded against evidence exactly as before, and it is also copied forward into the activity log as it is saved, so both places stay in step.
This is what allows you to enable programmes one at a time without breaking anything. Your reporting sees a complete picture throughout, whether or not a given programme has been enabled.
Time captured automatically on a programme that has not been enabled reaches the activity log labelled as coming from evidence, rather than as eLearning or placement time.
Managing entries after the move
Carried-across time behaves like any other activity log entry. Tutors review, accept and reject it in the activity log rather than through evidence. An entry that was already accepted stays accepted and does not need reviewing again, and one that was awaiting marking appears in the review queue.
The original evidence is untouched and still visible on the learner's learning plan.
Your reporting
If you build your own reports from OData, the activity log has its own feed and it is not a drop-in replacement for the feeds you use today. Several columns have no equivalent, and one field name means something different in each feed.
The feeds you use today are deprecated but still live and will keep returning data, so nothing breaks the day you enable a programme. You will need to move your reporting before the deprecated feeds are withdrawn, and we will let you know the timeline.