Gamification can enhance learning by increasing active engagement. However, the design of educational games that will excite and retain learner interest can be challenging. Learning new gameplay rules and environments can apply an extraneous cognitive load, which can detract from learning the intended educational content.

Educification is an approach to gamification that brings education into the games that learners are already playing. This reduces extraneous cognitive load, as the learners are already familiar with the game rules and environment.  Moreover, it allows the selection of game formats that are already proven to engage and keep the interest of the target audience of learners.

Examples of Educification

Drugdle by PharmaNUS Drugdle takes the popular Wordle game format and applies it to help medical and health professionals and students actively recall and learn to spell the international nonproprietary names (INNs) of commonly prescribed drugs.
QuizUp QuizUp was a highly popular mobile trivia game app. Pharmacology quizzes on the QuizUp platform allowed for repeated practice of multiple-choice questions and, by scoring both accuracy and speed, promoted fluency and automaticity. Such repeated, isolated practice of key component knowledge to achieve fluency and automaticity facilitates development of mastery. Being a multiplayer app with a default mode randomly assigning competitors, QuizUp also enabled global interprofessional interaction between medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students. The QuizUp platform was discontinued in March 2021.