The relevance of this article is determined by the general interest into modern distance technologies in higher education and the need to develop distance education in foreign languages for adult students. Distance learning is closely related to the individual independent educational activities of the student. This article aims to analyze how active techniques can be integrated and effectively used in the individual educational activities of a distant university student. The article presents some possible methods of enhancing the individual educational activities of students who study in a university system applying distance technologies such as participation in online discussions, expert opinions, intellect-maps and reflection, which allows students to effectively learn a foreign language and to develop professional and intercultural-communicative competencies. The didactic possibilities of activating the individual educational activities of students are considered, examples from the practice of e-learning using the distance educational technologies (DET) are given. The practical significance of the article lies in the idea of using active techniques in preparing classes in a foreign language for distance students studying mainly individually.