The epidemiological situation caused by the coronavirus infection has strengthened the trend of mass entry of students of pedagogical universities into the Internet space, communication in the virtual network, and expansion of the range of digital products. The most well-known interpretations of design in the scientific community remain the subject of research, disputes and discussions. The authors define the design as any creation of the subject environment of the university in the Internet space. The mass distribution of online learning actualizes the problem of pedagogical support for the design of student learning in foreign and domestic research. In the digital environment, educational independence, freedom of choice of courses, orientation of educational activities to cognitive abilities become priorities. Learning design acts as a pedagogically accompanied and personally regulated process of successful mastering of an educational program. Distant teaching, mixed and hybrid teaching modes require changes in the ways of learning, adaptation to the new format. The results of the electronic survey of students of pedagogical universities of the Volga Federal District (Orenburg, Ufa, Samara) are presented. 1137 students were participated in the survey. The empirical study showed that the design of educational activities in the Internet space "looms with a sketch" of digital tools for synchronous interaction and asynchronous educational work: electronic sources of educational information, relationships between subjects of the educational process, technologies of interaction in the Internet.