Social isolation during the pandemic contributed to the transition of educational processes to e-learning. A short-term e-marketing education program for a variety of students was introduced in May 2020 and is taught entirely online. A survey was conducted regularly in the last week of training using Google Forms, and three cohorts were surveyed in July, September, and December 2020. A high level of satisfaction indicates an interest in the content and a positive assessment of the level of comfort of an organization adapted to the needs of students; this positive result contrasted with the negative opinion of the remote learning in Russia since March 2020, and this surprising satisfaction of students has motivated the study to try to explain its reasons. This result was compared with the short-term course taught through the educational pedagogical platform of a university. The students of traditional short- and long-term university programs were asked to assess their satisfaction with different digital communication tools used for e-learning. They showed low satisfaction with the pedagogical platform and a positive reaction to the e-communication tools (messengers, social media, short surveys, video conferences, etc.). The qualitative responses helped to better understand the real problems of the cognitive process and the triple structure of intellectual production during e-learning, including interest in the intellectual outcome, the need for emotional and motivational elements of cooperation and competition between students, and smooth behavioral enrichment, which requires special efforts from students and their leading from teachers. The main conclusion concerns a practical decision to continue the implementation of the educational program in the form of an online course with the use of the mixed digital communication tools of social media, messengers, and video conferences, which most likely meets the expectations and capabilities of students.

Higher education has complex roles in society, the economy, and politics; it helps to transmit culture, transfer knowledge, and develop the personality of citizens. This diversity of roles is confronted with the limited resources that are related to the sources of financing, that is, students and their families, the national government, and local authorities, among others. The discussions related to the role of universities concern the economy of knowledge and the digital tools influencing education. The specific case of St. Petersburg universities simultaneously represents the impact of the deep socio-political transition from Soviet society to the liberal principles of a market economy, including the perception of higher education institutions as service sector companies. The services allowed by universities include research and training; however, from the consumer point of view, universities should create specific value: the increase of the intellectual components of human capital. These complex functions are interconnected. During 2017–2018, a survey in St. Petersburg was organised to ascertain the opinion of students, professors, and employers on the quality of education. The results of the survey demonstrate the impact of the exaggerated implementation of the liberal principles on education, both positive and negative. The positive effect is the renewing of content and innovative training techniques due to competition among universities. The negative impacts include the preference for popular disciplines and the opportunistic behavior of students that lose their passion for acquiring knowledge and choose instead the passive attitude of consumers of a competitive service. They are less interested in the sphere of their studies, in searching for a job, in the interaction with other social and economic actors, and even in the research and education options presented by the universities.

Research on behavior regulation was carried out after several months of social isolation, provoked by the pandemic, between the months of February and March 2020. In spring 2020, many higher education institutions began to introduce digital tools of education, remote learning, and distance teaching. The reaction during the first weeks and months was negative, but the experience of this remote regime of work and learning continued into the autumn semester due to COVID-19. This experience included the perceptions of new organizational approaches that were needed to regulate digital behavior as a specific type of strategy and choices made in the virtual space. This need was expressed in an understanding of the improvements to be implemented in the organization of educational processes at traditional institutions to efficiently apply the remote learning regime. Between December 2020 and March 2021, six focus groups were conducted to investigate if the regulation of behavior for remote work and learning (work for university administrative staff and academic teachers; studying for students) differed, with informal interviews also conducted to check the validity of the opinions formulated. The hypotheses of the lack of responsibility, and of iterative accomplishment of shorter and simpler tasks, were supported with the data obtained. The hypothesis on an imbalanced vision of mutual interests, and of the assessments of gains and costs of the remote activity, was confirmed. The hypothesis of the externalization of motivation was neither confirmed nor rejected, contradictory opinions were obtained, and, thus, further quantitative study is required. The conclusions based on the obtained results included support for improving the regulation mechanisms required to organize knowledge transfer when digital tools are applied at traditional educational institutions. To enhance the remote regime of learning, redesign and reorganization is necessary when considering the assistance needed by teachers and learners. Specific organizational efforts need to be implemented to restructure the teaching to shorter sequences, to stimulate the creativity of both teachers and learners (due to the readiness to experiment and the lack of critics, and constant access to online bases), and to identify the borders of the “sandbox” to clearly define and articulate the common rules of behavior.

Economy of knowledge is built on the ground of intellectual production. The efficiency of knowledge economy relies on the intellectual assets' market and regulation that requires smart solutions providing information security of the data processing. The blockchain' technology as a secure tool is already wide-spread within the individual contracting in the finance, management and governance. The Russian government discusses the possibilities to introduce this basic tool into public administration to assure the data safety, especially, to the creation and management of the State Registers, the Russian Association for Financial Technologies (FinTech Association) is established to help the digitalization process in the country. The FinTech Association produced the White Paper for Masterchain as a public resource for smart contracts can be used as an efficient tool not only for financial transactions or real estate register, but especially as a tool of the fast and secure processing of intellectual assets and exchange of ideas, providing high level of confidence for the knowledge' transfer. The paper includes the theoretical exploration of digital economy concept with the new tools of cloud and fog computing, Masterchain and crypto-currencies, the regulation of knowledge within the new context.

Modern highly technological teaching widely uses neurotechnologies related to creating new educational products, expanding the content of education and establishing objective feedback with students. One of the most promising neurotechnologies in the sphere of education is the method of biological feedback (BFB) based on studying the current psychophysiological state of students and using this information for further correction of the educational process, improving its quality and efficiency. This article presents the results of the studies based on the method of biological feedback to investigate the influence of the form of presentation of the educational material on the current psychophysiological state of students. During the BFB-studies, we used the PEN method developed by Hans and Sybil Eysenck to form focus groups of students and the CMS method to process the results of the studies. The research resulted in quantitative values of parameters of the current psychophysiological state of students reflecting the degree of intensity of such properties as the general adaptive resource, the degree of mobility (instability) of psychological processes, neuroticity, psychic productivity etc. (a total of 19 parameters).The study’s results based on the biological feedback method showed that studying educational materials that are different in form influences the parameters of the current psychophysiological state of students. The indicators of reserve of control of psychological activity, regulating and adapting the psychological sphere, as well as the indicators of reserve of syndromologicaladaptiveness of the current state if students study the textual material on their own, will improve as compared to studying graphical material only. Different types of educational material can cause anxiety and increased apprehension, with textual material contributing the least to these effects.