Abstract. The use of e-learning has become an important part of higher education. It expands the pedagogical resources, assists students in their learning, develops learners' skills, motivation and knowledge, prepares them for being productive in their workplaces of today's society. The paper provides the literature review regarding the use of e-learning, its advantages and disadvantages. The authors examine students' perception of e-learning courses based on the Moodle platform at National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. The findings from a survey of 67 students reveal that the respondents highlighted the following advantages of e-learning courses: convenience, combination of theoretical and practical material, on-line testing and apprehensibility of the assessment criteria.