This study is based on the experience gained over the period of March 2020- December 2020 when the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic forced millions of students of secondary and higher schools to shift almost overnight to distant or remote learning. Our paper predominately focuses on pedagogical aspects that are required to make online learning more attractive and motivating for students.  We carried out a survey of 27 teachers of the Department of foreign languages of the Faculty of Economics at of RUDN University aged 25-67 to find out   what advantages and disadvantages of online learning they found and what was the role of rapport during on-line learning. The obtained results point out that rapport remains important in distant learning and part of the teachers consider that its role increased because of the absence of face-to-face communication.