over the semester or year. One of the limitations of the IOLIS courseware at present is that it is essentially a solitary exercise, although students can be encouraged to go through the questions in groups of two or three. A further interesting teaching method, which could be combined with courseware, is the `virtual tutorial'. This involves e-mail or electronic conferencing communication between tutors and students, and possibly among students themselves. A recent experiment at the University of Durham in the UK had students discuss by e-mail over one week a hypothetical contract law dispute in moot format: arguing first for one party, then the other, and finally giving judgment (Widdison & Pritchard, 1997). Students found the interaction to be helpful in developing their understanding of the subject matter and so on. However the process took somewhat longer than expected; discussion did not really get to the final stage. Also, a significant proportion of students apparently would have preferred to `get it over and done with' - perceiving the process as involving more work for them. This could be an acute problem in Japan, where students tend to place even less priority on actual learning and the preparation this entails, although this holds less in the top tier law schools. On the other hand, particularly in Japan when students can feel shy about voicing opinions to the instructor or to other students, it may significantly enrich interaction (see also Widdison, 1995b). A related difficulty is that there is little tradition of