This feature is currently available to a limited number of early-access customers.
We’ll share further updates once we’re ready to widen availability.
Overview
New to the activity log? It is where all of a learner's logged time arrives for you to review, whether they entered it, Aptem captured it automatically, or it was moved across from before. Here is what it holds, why it is there, and what the statuses mean for off-the-job hours.
What is the activity log?
The activity log is a learner's complete record of logged time, and your queue for reviewing it. Each entry holds what the learner did, when, how long it took, and which learning plan component it counts towards. You accept it or refer it back with a reason, and your decision changes the learner's off-the-job position straight away.
Why it's there
Before the activity log, finding a learner's off-the-job hours meant working through evidence submissions one at a time. The activity log replaces that with one structured place to review time, a queue that only holds what still needs a decision, and an export you can hand to an auditor. It gives you:
- A single place to see and manage learner activity.
- Clear visibility of engagement and progress, including learners who have gone quiet.
- A guided review workflow rather than separate trips into each learner's record.
- Reliable, exportable audit records for funding assurance.
What's on the dashboard
The dashboard has three areas:
- Activities to review holds submitted and resubmitted activity waiting on you, queued for the review workflow.
- No activities logged in 28 days lists learners with no recent activity, with their contact details and their employer or manager contact details, so you can follow up.
- The learners table lists the learners on your caseload with activity awaiting review and overall logged hours, searchable by name and filterable by programme.
Both panels and the queue are scoped to activity where you are the caseowner, or where you are the component owner on the learning plan component.
Where the time in a learner's log comes from
A learner's log holds:
- Time the learner enters themselves.
- Time captured automatically, for example when a learner completes eLearning content or when placement hours are verified.
- Time the learner logged before the activity log was enabled for the programme, which has been copied across.
Activity that appears without the learner adding it
Time captured automatically arrives as a draft rather than a finished entry, because Aptem cannot know whether it took place during working hours or in the learner's own time. Only the learner can answer that. Once they complete the draft it reaches you as submitted, and you review it as normal. The learner can also amend the description, which defaults to naming the learning plan activity they completed.
Draft time does not count towards a learner's off-the-job hours until the learner completes it and you accept it. If a learner's hours look lower than you expect, check for unfinished drafts.
What counts towards off-the-job hours
Only accepted time counts. Submitted, resubmitted, rejected and draft entries do not contribute to a learner's off-the-job total, or to the progress shown on their learning plan.
What happened to time logged before the change
Time your learners logged previously is copied into the activity log, so you are not starting from an empty screen. Aptem runs this for your organisation and checks the totals before anything switches over, so there is nothing for you to trigger or tidy up.
The original evidence records are left exactly as they are and remain visible on the learner's learning plan. Only the time is moved across.
The status your existing entries will have
Decisions you have already made 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 |
Your review queue therefore only contains time that was still waiting for a decision, not your whole history. Time you accepted months ago stays accepted.
Entries showing as rejected are the ones you or a colleague previously referred back. The referral comment is carried across as the rejection reason, so the learner can still see what you asked them to change. Long comments are shortened.
Why an entry says "Evidence note:" or "Hours uploaded against evidence:"
Copied entries keep a description built from the record the time was originally logged against, so you can tell where it came from:
- "Evidence note:" followed by the text of the note, where the time was recorded against a note. If the note held only an image or formatting, you see "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 long notes are shortened. Entries that were already in the activity log keep whatever description the learner gave them, with no prefix, which is the quickest way to tell a copied entry from one logged directly.
If you find that time is missing
If you find a time record that has not moved across once the activity log is enabled for your programme, raise it with your Aptem contact. Records that exist but have no time recorded against them may not move across. If a learner's totals do not look right, contact your administrator before making any changes.
Deleted learning plan components
If a learning plan component with linked activity is deleted, the activity stays in the learner's history but the link to the component is broken. Opening one of those entries shows a message explaining that the component has been removed. You can still see the activity details, but not the component context.
How it fits with the rest of Aptem
Entries are tied to learning plan components, which is how logged time counts towards the right part of a programme and how review work is routed to the right person. When a learner submits or resubmits activity, Aptem notifies the tutor responsible for the relevant component, with direct access to the entry. The audit export pulls planned off-the-job training hours from the ILR alongside the logged time, which is what makes it usable for funding assurance.
What to tell your learners
Before your first enabled programme goes live, it helps if learners know:
- Their previously logged time is still there and they do not need to re-enter it.
- The activity log is now where they add and track all their time.
- Anything showing as a draft needs completing before it counts.