The current paper presents the results of a three-year study of the organization of the online education in the Rakovski National Defence College before and after COVID-19's emergence. Instruments of Microsoft Big Data Analysis have been utilized for the purposes of the research. The results come under the form of specified good practices, achievements and weaknesses of the online education. A comparative analysis, including the results of questionnaires, graphics and diagrams has been introduced. The physical distancing during the COVID-19 crisis has imposed a change of the university priorities worldwide as well as a re-evaluation of the modes of communication of teachers and students, the planning and the organization of the educational process. The universities, as a result, have speedily started with introducing alternative, distance and online education as part of the mechanisms for coping with the virus. All of the above has necessitated the study of the System of Academic Communication (SAC) in the Rakovski National Defence College (RNDC) with the purpose of its optimization, having in mind the contemporary conditions worldwide. The current paper is devoted to the results of a three-year research of the academic communication between teachers and students at the Rakovski National Defence College as well as the organization of the online educational process after the emergence of COVID-19 from the administrator's perspective. Today, there are more than 2000 active users in the RNDC System of Academic Communication and with its help they communicate from everywhere in the world, at any time, from every end device and in a protected and secure medium. With this in mind, SAC has successfully adapted to the work in the conditions of COVID-19 and has even considerably improved its options for communication between the teachers and the students.

Academic communication; online education; COVID-19.