The article reveals the topic of the place and role of the Vkontakte social network in the organization of the educational process, the relevance of which was confirmed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The object of the research is digital education at Russian universities. The subject of the research is the VKontakte social network as a means of organizing the educational process. The authors share the experience of using social networks, accumulated in the process of teaching social disciplines at the Timiryazev Academy. The data proving the popularity of this network among students in Russia are presented. The main scientific result: not only the high efficiency of using the VKontakte social network for organizing the educational process has been proven, but also a proposal is formulated to consider digital literacy and knowledge of modern digital technologies as one of the qualification requirements for higher school teachers.

For the modern higher education system, it is difficult to find a more relevant topic than distance learning. Having tested the distance format in the spring of 2020, when strict self-isolation measures were introduced by the decision of the city authorities, higher educational institutions in Moscow switched to this format again in the fall of 2020, in connection with the onset of the second wave of the pandemic. Considering that subsequent waves of the spread of COVID-19 or other viruses are possible, Russian higher educational institutions must be ready to take on new challenges, which makes improving the distance learning system in each specific educational institution an extremely important task in planning and organizing the educational process. The purpose of the study: to share the experience of the Timiryazev Academy on the implementation of distance learning during the pandemic. The object of the research is distance learning. The subject of the research is the implementation of distance learning at the Timiryazev Academy in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years. The research methods are content analysis of the official website of the Timiryazev Academy and other Internet resources, as well as the sociological survey of students of the Timiryazev Academy. The article shows the main problems that the academy faced when implementing distance learning: selection of high-quality content, psychological preparation of teachers, establishment of operational communication, as well as the provision of students with means of communication. The main scientific result: it is shown that the key to successfully overcoming the difficulties and solving the problems caused by the pandemic was the course for the consistent digitalization of the educational process, which began to be performed at the Timiryazev Academy even before the pandemic started.