In collaboration with groups from five other universities, the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has launched the “Virtual Microbes”, a virtual peer teaching study project involving 679 students throughout the country. Other participants include School of Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences, School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Institute of Biological Sciences (Microbiology Unit) University of Malaya (UM), School of Biology, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and School of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), and representatives from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology, School of Sciences,  
La Trobe University, Australia. making it the largest collaborative virtual peer teaching  project between universities in Malaysia.

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The “Virtual Microbes” project initiated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Zuhainis Saad, Head of the Department of Microbiology, UPM is designed to achieve several educational goals; Firstly, to encourage use of technology and digital tools to improve students experience and outcomes Secondly, to promote openness to ideas, placing the learner at the center, emphasizing interaction and working in groups.; Thirdly, to develop mindset that each institution could learn with each other despite any differences in student population, faculty and structure and fourthly, to bring technology to scale in a classroom environment and move the community of digital learning forward. We are developing future-ready learners for the 21st Century. The undergraduate students from the universities involved will be learning Microbiology together utilising various Web 2.0 tools. Virtual study groups, each of which consists of students from different universities, are assigned to explore their creativity in discussing and presenting specific topics related to the courses that they are taking during this semester.