Despite the quarantine and lockdown, the scientific and pedagogical staff of the university participates in various distance self-education programs. Lecturers improve their pedagogical skills, deepen their knowledge in the field of their scientific interests. Thus, Ihor Chornyi, the Head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies of the Faculty No. 2, Doctor of Philology, Professor, who has been fruitfully engaged in the study of historical genres in literature for many years, took a four-week distance course at the University of Aberdeen (Great Britain). The course was dedicated to the life and work of the founder of the historical novel genre Walter Scott, who contemporaries called the "Scottish Wizard".