ABSTRACT
The paper aims to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of the information and educational environment of the university. The research relevance is due to the urgent nature of the transition of universities to the use of information and educational environments. This must be done in full for implementing educational programs, as well as intermediate and final certification, in a remote form. In the paper, we have analyzed changes in the regulatory legal acts of universities from the top ten ranking of digital activities in the Russian Federation in connection with the measures taken to counter the coronavirus infection. More than that, we have surveyed teachers and students of the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (Moscow, Russia) to identify the difficulties teachers and students faced when switching to a distance-learning format. The study has made it possible to conclude about the positive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing the information and educational environment of the leading universities of the Russian Federation. At the same time, we have identified problems manifesting themselves in a sharp and unprepared transition to a complete distance learning format using the information and educational environment of the university. Among these difficulties, we should note the lack of digital literacy of teachers, the digital divide, and problems with software and hardware. When eliminating the identified shortcomings, many students and teachers admit learning certain disciplines and courses in a distance form in the future using the information and educational environment of the university. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.