This article explores the problems that foreign language teachers may face when teaching a professionally oriented foreign language to university students using massive open online courses. The current state of the educational environment dictates the requirements for the use of digital technologies in the educational process of higher education institutions. Based on many years of experience on integrating massive open online courses into the process of teaching a foreign language in non-linguistic universities in Novosibirsk, the problems that impede the increase of students' motivation for cognitive activity and the effective formation of professional foreign language competence are formulated. This paper presents a number of methodological recommendations to neutralize the impact of the given problems on the target learning objectives.

Keywords: massive open online course, blended learning, distance learning, open education, university.