The detailed action log allows the headquarters users view important actions undertaken by the interviewers on the tablets, such as application start and login activities, starting or discarding an interview, synchronization attempts, and other actions undertaken in the last 7 days. The actions log is updated with any synchronization of the tablet. (But if the tablet does not synchronize, there is no way for the HQ personnel to know what actions were undertaken, since this information won’t be sent).

The report is accessible from the interviewer profile, following the link “Show actions log”. Here is an example of the actions log reflecting the work of the interviewer AP1 on Friday, June 8, 2018:

We can see that the interviewer was working on the interview at the beginning of the day, then had a series of failed synchronization attempts, and then after a pause of about 10 minutes, a successful synchronization attempt.

The log may be downloaded in the form of a tab-delimited file with two columns: Timestamp and Action. The timestamps in the report on the screen and in the downloadable version are reported using the tablet’s clock in the tablet’s current time zone. Here is an example:

Timestamp Action
06/08/2018 11:05:46 Sync completed: 2 interview(s) uploaded
06/08/2018 11:05:04 Sync started
06/08/2018 11:04:53 User ap1 logged in application
06/08/2018 11:04:38 Application opened
06/08/2018 10:55:00 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:54:58 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:48:50 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:48:48 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:48:43 User ap1 logged in application
06/08/2018 10:48:28 Application opened
06/08/2018 10:48:05 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:48:05 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:47:41 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:47:40 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:47:33 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:47:33 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:47:30 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:47:30 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:47:17 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:47:15 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:46:35 Sync failed
06/08/2018 10:46:15 Sync started
06/08/2018 10:44:34 Interview 60-10-38-48 closed
06/08/2018 10:44:34 Interview 60-10-38-48 completed
06/08/2018 10:05:07 Interview 60-10-38-48 opened
06/08/2018 10:03:41 User ap1 logged in application
06/08/2018 10:03:22 Application opened

The HQ-users may utilize this report as an additional source of information to confirm or reject interviewers’ claims. For example, the above shown report corroborates the claim of the interviewer that he was attempting to synchronize the collected data, but was experiencing communication difficulties.

Answers to individual questions in the interviews are not recorded in this log, but may be found in the paradata file.