IN ENGLISH     General information   The Finnish Virtual University of Literature is a shared teaching project of the departments of literature in the Finnish universities. The departments take turns in producing web-based virtual courses.The first virtual courses began in autumn 2001.  The virtual courses deal with the teachers’ own particular sphere of interests. This enables a better nation-wide usage of  the university teachers’ and researchers’ knowledge. The goal of the project is to increase the diversity of approaches in academic literature studies with web-based courses.   The participating departments in the project are: Department of Finnish Literature, Department of Comparative Literature and Department of Nordic Literature in the University of Helsinki, Department of Literature in the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Literature in the University of Oulu, Department of Finnish Literature and Department of Comparative Literature in the University of Tampere, Department of Finnish Literature and Department of Comparative Literature in the University of  Turku and Department of Literature in Åbo Akademi.    Learning resources    The purpose of the Finnish Virtual University of Literature is to increase the diversity of existing literary studies. It is not intended to replace the current teaching in the departments of literature; rather it provides the current teaching with new resources. The virtual studies enable the students to profit from teaching in universities other than their own.     The virtual studies are a web-based mode of studying independent of time and place. The courses make use of interaction alongside with the written material in the web. Active participation in course discussions and other types of online communication with teachers and other students form a crucial part of the virtual studies.     The majority of the courses in the Virtual University are completely web-based with no face to face teaching. However, the students should note that not even the virtual studies work without schedules: interactive studying is both rewarding and time-consuming.    The courses are open to all students at any departments of literature co-operating in the project. The only limitation are the student quotas: the courses can take only a certain number of students set for each course .  Studying in the Virtual University of Literature requires a computer with an Internet connection. The facilities can be student’s own or provided by his/her university.   Evaluation and feedback    The new modes of teaching and studying increase the knowledge of the processes concerning learning and teaching. The increasing insights into the efficient body of tuition and evaluation in distance studies can be utilized in developing the teaching within the project as well as in the participants’ other activities.    The feedback comes both from the teachers and the students. The feedback is used in developing the virtual teaching. Other activities It is characteristic of the Virtual University of Literature to engage in constant co-operation with other projects of virtual teaching (mostly in the field of humanities), such as the Virtual History project. The goal The goal of the Virtual University of Literature is to establish web-based teaching as a normal part of the academic studies of literature in Finland.