Disclosure Agreement: Review of VV software was due to compensation from the company’s whose products were reviewed. We Dish Nutrition tested each product thoroughly and gives high marks to only the very best. Opinions expressed at We Dish Nutrition are our own.
Visual Veggies Software created by Ryan Hartz MS, RD, CSSD
Review by: Nikki Nies
Use: Practice exam questions and tests to help study for the licensure exam to become a Registered Dietitian
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Are you familiar with Visual Veggies (VV) software? There is a large following and use of the Visual Veggies software, with universities around the country either using the software in the application and/or recommending it to students.
The VV Registered Dietitian (RD) Practice Exam allows one to study for the RD exam at own pace, using multiple choice quiz application that resembles the RD Exam format. The software provides immediate feedback of selected answer and detailed explanations.
The founder, Ryan Hartz, is a graduate of Marywood University in Scranton, PA. covering for several temporary maternity leaves, as of 2006, he is a full-time Registered Dietitian with Nestle Nutrition. The software idea came to fruition after the summer months following his internship, with a demo launched three short months of writing the program. As Ryan proudly states, he has been “Helping Nutrition Students Pass Their Registration Exams Since 2005!”
Since the development of the RD Practice Exam, Ryan has developed the DTR Practice Exam and RD/DTR Hanging with Nutrition. However, the main focus of today’s review is on the RD Practice Exam. After extensive use of the RD Practice Exam this past week, I’ve been impressed by the array of features and thought out layout of the programming software.
Features:
- Enclosed step-by-step YouTube tutorial provided when the software is initially downloaded!
- Breakdown of strengths/weaknesses of RD exam via Progress Tracker
- Provides an extensive, thorough explanation for why the answer is correct. It includes a picture, % of correct
- Ability to adjust text size
- Illustrations to expand on some questions and ability to enlarge picture view
- Ability to enable or disable timer
- Provides explanation of all multiple choice options
- Clever way of encouraging one to retake tests—“Redeem yourself”
- Practice Exam Monitoring Tool: allows instructors and/or students to monitor progress of software use; pretest scores, average scores overall; individual test results and overview snapshot of how well student is doing in each domain is provided
- Option to purchase Student and/or Academic Edition of the software. The Student Editions are intended for individual students, while the academic edition is designed for colleges, universities or other academic institutions that would like to install the software for multiple users
- Option to pay for software via check or credit card
- Ability to share results with others
- Mac and PC compatible, and soon for iOS devices
The VV software has evolved into a great medium to study for the RD exam. There is still room for improvement in future versions of the software. For example, it would be helpful if one could “save” explanations to add to library for further studies, such as bookmarking and/or copying and pasting explanations into a Word document. It would also be beneficial to be able to disable or enable the feature of sharing the answer while taking the practice exams. In addition, it can be hard to scroll through the entire “explanation” of the correct answer, with the program not instantly “registering” that scrolling down to the bottom portion of the explanation is requested.
There are always opportunities for improvement and enhancement of a product, with VV launching timely updates of its software and Ryan is receptive to constructive criticism. In fact, due to student demand, VV is underway to go mobile! The goal is for the RD and DTR Practice Exam mobile versions available on iOS App Store by end of the first quarter of 2015. The Hanging with Nutrition mobile version will be launched shortly after.
Want to contact the founder? You can reach Ryan Hartz at 570-814-6665 or info@visualeggies.com
Visual Veggies Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
If you find you can’t get enough of VV’s software, check out its supplemental software, RD Hanging with Nutrition, which is an additional interactive study tool hangman style.
Interested in getting your own version of the VV software? Buy the software by December 31st, 2015 and receive $20 off the software when you use the code: WEDISHNUTRITION
Photo Credit: Visual Veggies
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