After building your lesson, the next step is to make it available to learners, teammates, or reviewers. Mindsmith gives you flexible sharing and export tools so you can distribute lessons in the way that makes the most sense for your audience.
Options range from quick public links to fully packaged SCORM files for your LMS, with analytics and review features built in. This article explains how to access the sharing menu, enable public access, explore the available sharing methods, and use advanced features like staging.
Jump to Section:
Locating Sharing Settings
Enable Sharing: Public Access
Staging Changes (Business+)
Ways to Share a Lesson
Locating Sharing Settings
All lesson sharing options are located within the individual lesson editor. To open them:
Navigate to your lesson in the editor.
Click the Share button in the top right corner.
This opens the Share panel, where you can manage access, select from various export options, and generate share links.
Enable Sharing: Public Access
When you first open the Share menu, you'll see the Who Has Access section. By default, anyone in your organization can view and edit the lesson.
To enable external sharing links and embed codes, you must toggle on Public Access.
Public Access does not lock your lesson. You can continue editing while this is enabled.
You can disable Public Access at any time. This instantly disables all external links and embeds.
Certain exports (like PDF and LMS packages) are always available, even if Public Access is turned off.
After you toggle Public Access on, the menu expands to show all available direct sharing and embed settings. Click More options at the bottom of the list to see advanced distribution methods.
Staging Changes (Business+)
If you are on a Business+ plan, you can use the Staging feature to safely edit live lessons. Staging allows you to make changes to your lesson behind the scenes without instantly updating the live version your learners are viewing.
To use staging:
Open the Share menu and click Enable Staging.
Continue making edits to your lesson. Your live public links and dynamic SCORM packages will remain unchanged.
When you are ready to push your updates to learners, click Publish Changes.
You can also click Versions in this section to view the lesson's version history and restore previous states.
Ways to Share a Lesson
Depending on the needs of your team or learners, Mindsmith offers several distribution formats. These options are all accessible through the Share menu.
Each method serves a different use case. Let's break them down in detail:
1. Public Link
Navigation: Open the Share menu and toggle Public Access on. Click Copy Public Link.
Public links are ideal when you want learners to access a lesson directly without requiring them to sign in. For example, you might distribute a public link to a large group for open training, customer education, or onboarding.
2. Review Link
Navigation: Open the Share menu, toggle Public Access on, and click Copy Review Link.
A Review Link lets stakeholders preview a lesson exactly as a learner would, without needing a Mindsmith account. It’s designed for quick reviews during the development stage.
Key Details:
View-only access: Reviewers can see the lesson but cannot edit it.
No analytics: Views and completions through a Review Link are not tracked in your reporting.
Best use case: Sending a draft to stakeholders who just need to skim the lesson before it’s finalized.
Tip: If you need tracked collaboration, invite teammates directly to your workspace. For true learner access with analytics enabled, use a Public Link instead.
3. Download LMS Package (SCORM)
Navigation: Open the Share menu and click Download LMS Package. Choose your format and delivery method, then click Download.
LMS packages allow you to integrate Mindsmith lessons into your existing learning management system to track progress and assessment results. For a deeper dive on SCORM packaging, see the SCORM Packaging guide.
You can configure two main settings:
Format: Choose between SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 depending on what your LMS supports.
Package Type: Choose "Dynamic" (recommended) so your LMS course automatically updates whenever you publish changes in Mindsmith. Choose "Static" if you need a hard-coded file that will never change.
4. Export as PDF (Business+)
Navigation: Open the Share menu and click Export as PDF.
This generates a static, text-based document of your lesson. PDF exports are helpful for compliance archives, printed handouts, or providing offline access to learners. Once processing is complete, the file will download automatically or be emailed to you directly.
5. Export as Website
Navigation: Open the Share menu, click More options, and select Export as Website.
This will download a ZIP file containing the HTML and web assets for your lesson. Website exports are suited for organizations that want to host content independently on an internal portal, custom web server, or intranet.
6. Get Embed Code
Navigation: Open the Share menu, toggle Public Access on, click More options, and select Get Embed Code.
Embedding allows you to integrate a lesson directly into an existing platform or webpage. You can select either a Large or Fullscreen preset size, then click Copy Embed Code to grab the generated iframe text. This is perfect for placing training material into a company wiki or notion page.
7. QR Code
Navigation: Open the Share menu, toggle Public Access on, click More options, and select QR Code.
QR codes are a quick way to give learners access on their mobile devices. They are especially effective in live training sessions, presentations, workshops, or when distributing content on physical flyers. Click Download QR Code to save the image to your device.
8. Send via Email or SMS
Navigation: Open the Share menu, toggle Public Access on, click More options, and select Send.
You can deliver lessons directly to specific learners by entering their email addresses or phone numbers. Note that SMS is currently supported for US phone numbers only. Also, be aware that sending via email and SMS is a legacy feature that may be removed in the future.
Key Takeaways
Access all sharing tools from the Share button in the top right corner of the editor.
Toggle Public Access on before distributing links—this enables public URLs, review links, and embed codes.
Use Staging (Business+) to safely make edits without immediately updating the live version your learners see.
Choose the sharing method that best fits your audience: quick links, SCORM packages for your LMS, static PDFs, or scannable QR codes.