Unplanned and unexpected switch to totally remote teaching and learning at high schools may result in a complete termination of university activity, modification of its content, aims and goals, birth of challenges and problems. Overcoming of these challenges and problems will initiate planning and design of the educational scheme, that is demanded and relevant to the current situation. Teaching and learning are the core aspects of all high schools, and these aspects should be sustainable in force majeure, which will minimize the risks in all aspects of university activity, involving internationalization and foreign students, in particular. New and urgent for the modern labor market professional competences should be linked with the digital ways of reaching the professional goals. Hence, the consistency in the switch to a totally remote teaching and learning can be reached if the digital competence of the teaching staff has been formed before and the learning outcomes would include digital skills. The authors propose the teaching and learning scheme for the distant learning that is focused on the learning outcomes demanded by the potential employers. In the authors opinion, the scheme will facilitate paces on internationalization of higher education in force majeure.

The article considers a negative impact on internationalization processes in Russian medical HE that is caused by the lack of a coordinated, unified, country-wide accepted system of testing English for professional communication. Authors describe how training and taking Occupational English Test is one of the ways to solve this problem, since OET is a widely acknowledged in English-speaking countries language certificate test for professionals in medicine. Adapting OET purposes to Russian medical HE system, establishing the network of training and testing centers will increase medical students’ and professionals’ motivation in learning English and stimulate their joining academic and professional community. These factors will contribute into the enhancement of internationalization processes in Russian medical HE.

The educational technology of using a virtual patient (VP) for teaching communication skills is an innovation for medical education in the Russian Federation. The work describes the theoretical, practical, technological features of the introduction of VP into the educational program of higher education in the specialty 31.05.01 "Medicine" (I.I. Mechnikov North-Western State Medical University); demonstrates the design of an assessment system using the blueprinting method; summarizes the results of a survey of students on satisfaction with communicative trainings with the use of VP.

Introduction of a totally remote classroom in Russian and foreign higher educational institutions became a methodological response to COVID-19 educational disruption. This new, unfamiliar format of teaching and learning was enforced by universities’ authorities and had to be adopted quickly by both, teachers and students. This research investigates students’ response to new educational environment in terms of two criteria: changes in overall course satisfaction, and the most preferable format of training. To get students’ feedback we conducted an anonymous survey in LMS Moodle for 350 first year students at North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov. The survey measured 3 key parameters of the course satisfaction: course expectations fulfillment, learning environments satisfaction, and achieving personal goals. Analysis of the survey outcomes shows that educational process was not disrupted despite the abrupt and rapid character of the introduction of the totally remote classroom. Since students had been familiar with learning digital tools, their goals and needs in education did not change. Psychological aspect gives reasons for the biggest concern: students miss safety and comfort of a conventional classroom. In general, course satisfaction and students’ motivation were not affected largely by the introduction of the totally remote classroom. At the same time, we conclude that students perceive it as a temporary measure and there is a need at higher educational institutions to return to conventional in-classroom learning with digital tools as an additional method to realize educational program.