Education & Skills / AI news for Malaysia
From the archive · Source report date 11 August 2025
UKM tested AiYOH before a planned series of free AI workshops
The pilot used participant feedback to improve delivery and content. UKM reported positive reactions, but published no participant count, assessment score or rollout result.
In brief
- UKM's The Media Initiative conducted user-acceptance testing for a pilot Artificial Intelligence Literacy Empowerment Workshop module known as AiYOH.[1]
- The programme aimed to help Malaysian higher-education students use AI software effectively and responsibly, with hands-on applications including research, reports and teaching materials.[1]
- UKM said the Google News Initiative-sponsored programme would begin a series of free workshops in October and invited academics and lecturers to become trainers. A separate UKM page later documented an AiYOH workshop at ICOSH 2025, but it did not establish the wider series' scale or learning outcomes.[1][2]
UKM put an AI-literacy pilot through user-acceptance testing
A research group at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia used a user-acceptance workshop to test an AI-literacy module before taking it to a wider student audience. UKM's official news portal reported the AiYOH pilot on 11 August 2025. The programme came from The Media Initiative at UKM's Centre for Research in Media and Communication.[1]
AiYOH—short for Artificial Intelligence Literacy Empowerment Workshop—was intended to help students at Malaysian higher-education institutions use AI software effectively and responsibly. The test examined whether the module's content and delivery worked smoothly and invited constructive criticism before the actual workshop series.[1]
UKM reported that most participants responded positively and said the module helped them understand ethical techniques and strategies for everyday AI use. One participant highlighted hands-on use in research, report preparation and teaching-and-learning materials. The report did not publish how many people took part, the assessment method, before-and-after learning scores or the exact content of the module.[1]
The team tested the module before the wider workshop series
Associate Professor Dr Sabariah Mohamed Salleh, identified by UKM as TMI's lead researcher, said user-acceptance testing was important for checking the flow of delivery and the module's content. The workshop was also intended to gather constructive criticism so the material could be improved before the full workshops began.[1]
That sequence is valuable for AI education because a module can be technically accurate and still fail learners through unclear instructions, unrealistic examples or weak pacing. Testing delivery with intended users can reveal where participants become confused, what requires more practice and whether responsible-use guidance is connected to actual tasks rather than left as a general warning.[1]
Practical use and responsible use were presented together
UKM described the goal as effective and responsible use of AI software among higher-education students. Participant feedback in the article pointed to practical work: research, report writing, and preparation of teaching and learning materials. This positioned literacy as the ability to make informed use of tools in everyday academic work rather than simply knowing definitions about artificial intelligence.[1]
A complete learning outcome would still need more detail. Responsible academic use can involve checking generated claims, citing real sources, protecting confidential material, following institutional rules and understanding when AI assistance changes the authorship or assessment boundary. The checked report did not list AiYOH's curriculum or assessment rubric, so this article does not claim that every one of those topics was taught.[1]
A free series was planned, with lecturers invited to help train
The UKM report said AiYOH was sponsored by Google News Initiative and would begin a series of free workshops for students at Malaysian higher-education institutions from October. TMI also invited academics and lecturers from all higher-education institutions to collaborate as AiYOH trainers. That model could widen reach by developing facilitators rather than relying only on one research team.[1]
The announcement did not state how many institutions, trainers or students the series would cover, how learners would register or whether the material would be openly available. A separate UKM page documents an AiYOH workshop at ICOSH 2025, confirming at least one later delivery, but it does not establish the full series' reach or learning outcomes. Free access removes a price barrier, but scheduling, trainer capacity and institutional support still affect who can participate.[1][2]
Why Malaysia should care
AiYOH was designed for students in Malaysian higher-education institutions and treated responsible use as part of practical AI literacy. The pilot also demonstrated a sensible education pattern: test the module with users, collect criticism and improve it before a wider free workshop series.
Malaysian university students
AiYOH promised practical and responsible AI training without a workshop fee, but the historical report does not establish current registration availability.[1]
Practical move: Check UKM or TMI for a current intake and ask what assessment, attendance and data-use rules apply.
Lecturers and academic staff
TMI invited academics across institutions to collaborate as trainers, creating a possible route to extend the programme.[1]
Practical move: Request the trainer guide, learning objectives and facilitation standard before adapting the module locally.
University leaders
The pilot offers a model for testing an AI-literacy module before scaling it across classes or institutions.[1]
Practical move: Measure learning and responsible-use behaviour before and after training, not attendance alone.
What Malaysians can do now
- Publish the module's learning objectives, responsible-use boundaries and assessment method.
- Report the number and mix of learners, trainers and institutions reached after the pilot.
- Measure whether participants can verify, disclose and safely use AI in real academic tasks.
What we still do not know
The pilot report did not show the later programme's scale or learning results.
- The pilot's participant count, selection, assessment method and before-and-after learning results.
- How many free workshops, institutions, students and trainers took part from October onward.
- The detailed curriculum, registration route, current availability and terms of Google News Initiative sponsorship.
Sources
- 1.TMI anjur bengkel ujian penerimaan pengguna uji modul rintis AiYOH Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 11 August 2025
- 2.Bengkel AiYOH sempena ICOSH 2025 Portal Bata Merah FSSK, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
