Jarl Hellman is head of the medicine program at Uppsala university.

– This is a way to sharpen our training. Medicine students are generally very competitive so therefore we believe that this kind of game will suit them. It's a little addictive, too, Hellman said.

Hellman emphasized that the quiz app would not replace any regular teaching, but could be seen as a fun and complementary complement.

Uppsala university is the first official partner to the company behind Quizclash, FEO Media and their new venture Quizclash Enterprise. The contract is yet to be signed, but is expected to be ready in next couple of days.

Proffesor wanted to win against his sons

Frits Timmermans, product manager at FEO Media, said that the initiative first came from a colleague to Jarl Hellman, proffesor Ulf Eriksson.

– It was Ulf who contacted us. He had played Quizclash during several years and was eager to make a version for his students. That was how it began, Frits Timmermans explained.

– He was playing a lot, and wanted to find a way to win over his sons more often. Therefore, he wanted to have more medical questions in the game, said Jarl Hellman.

How much the university pays for the app is yet to be publicly released, but according Jarl Hellman, the cost is pretty much like what is normal is for a regular app.

– Our medicine programme is one of the most expensive programs we have, and in that context, we are not talking about any large sums of money.

Boring questions can be made fun

Uppsala University is the first university in the project and the FEO Media sees the collaboration as a pilot project.

– We are very eager to try this concept.  If it works, we would like to do the same with other universities, said Frits Timmermans.

Jarl Hellman hopes that more universities will want to jump on the project.

– We were already creating a national question bank along with other medicine programs. The app does not work with all types of questions, but we think that a lot of questions can be put in the app. Especially boring factual questions can be fun to rehearse if you compete against your classmates, it becomes a way to spice up the program.

Launc in the fall

The plan is to launch the app for the fall semester. Around 1,000 medical students will then have access to the app, which will be divided into different categories and levels, depending on how far into their educations the students have come.

– But we also believe that teachers and newly graduated doctors can benefit from playing, said Frits Timmermans.

The university will also be able to see summaries of which questions the quiz players had difficulty with.

– It could mean that hindsight is wrong or that our teaching when it comes to these areas is poor.

”Should be writing questions right now”

At this moment the medical faculty teachers are writing questions to the app. When launched, the quiz will have a few thousand questions. But as the tradition with the regular Quizclash, students will be able to contribute with their own questions. However all new questions will be checked by teachers before they are approved.

Have you written some questions?

– Yes, actually I shouldn't spend so much time on this interview, since I am really supposed to be writing questions right now.