Trakstar Learn (formerly Mindflash) is an online training platform. Users can create courses, add quizzes and track results. Users can upload external content and access the platform via mobile devices. It also provides user management and reporting for internal and external training and scaling purposes.
We use Mindflash for a lot of our internal training needs, and it is very versatile to accomplish your needs in training employees in a variety of different areas. I've never tried to use it for external needs, but I feel like the software at the advanced level wouldn't suit that need very well at all. At the Pro level, you get a lot more flexibility, but the cost is prohibitive for the size of our company.
Over the course of months/years, various security exploits and other issues are discovered and patched in AIR, often requiring you to rebuild and resubmit mobile apps to the various storefronts. This happens often enough that it's worth mentioning as a major con.
While development on Adobe AIR seems to be fairly constant, there is very little communication between the community and Adobe regarding the future and general support of AIR. The track record of Flash (and particularly Flash Mobile) does not inspire much confidence that Adobe intends to support Flash/AIR for years to come.
Adobe AIR does not seem to perform as well (in terms of raw performance, memory usage, framerates, responsiveness, etc.) as other hybrid solutions for certain tasks. For example using shaders tends to be experimental still, and graphic/animation intensive projects often require the use of third party frameworks such as Starling.
Integration with Salesforce using professional level software. Mindflash's limited integration to only work with the higher level of Salesforce product.
More brand customization for multiple product line trainings.
Communication of trainers using Mindflash and sales team. We have multiple trainers sending invitations for training with no way for them to communicate with our sales team when a person has completed training.
The number of people using Mindflash is only going to rise and we need a system that remains easy to use for everyone involved. [update] This is especially vital now that we've lost head count in critical departments. Getting all of our training and Safety objectives met would be impossible without Mindflash.
Although Adobe AIR is just an SDK without an actual "UI" it's commonly used within Flash, Flash Builder, or FlashDevelop. Considering the integration with Flash IDE, there are very few tools that can compete with its features.
The interface is just so simple to understand. It's clean and efficient. We showed Mindflash off to the Safety group, who are not computer gurus and they were beyong excited to use it.
Any problems or questions we have had with Mindflash have been handled promptly and effectively. I normally use the online chat option but have had to correspond with them through email and phone as well. We have never had an issue languish for weeks or months with Mindflash. They either fix the problem or let you know that the software isn't capable to handle the need at that point.
If you're going to develop a short course to demo the product internally, don't bother avoiding your own topics. Mindflash rolls whatever content you create during the trial into your production environment when you decide to buy. The time taken to go from not having a system to being live with Mindflash is virtually instant. What you'll be wanting for is time to develop content and people to test it out.
Originally, Adobe AIR was the only game in town, and its blend of flexibility in platforms it could publish to (PC, Mac, iOS, Android), ease of use, and familiarity made it the clear choice. Now Adobe no longer supports it, and we’ve found the transition to Harmon unworkable for us.
This is an alternate software that we have looked into, right now we don't have the need for the increased flexibility that Lesson.ly provides with learning from your mobile or tablet. We haven't seen a lot of those things as particularly useful for our current training methods, but we see the quality to be similar.
Mindflash has had a positive impact on our business because it allows us to train more new users with less effort, and ensure that trainees have access to the course materials for a period of time after they have started using our software to do their daily jobs. Review of the course materials allows them to get answers to common questions without having to submit requests to our support team, thereby reducing the administrative burden on our resources.
