Within the process of progressive digitization of materials and tools for teaching and distance learning of a subject of introduction to Microeconomics (quarterly, in year three of the Degree in Social Work), taught by the authors at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), a virtual assistant in the form of chatbot, or conversational robot, called EconBot, has been designed and made available to students from 2017. This paper presents the reasons that led to its adoption, the process of its development, differentiating two phases, its characteristics and functions, the assessment of its usefulness and the role of teachers in the implementation of this type of technological innovation.

Online training is demanded in the ubiquitous society we live in, and this is especially true if we consider the current situation at universities due to the Government issuing a state of alarm decree which requests all citizens to remain at home. The goal of this study is to determine the opinion of university students from different Spanish campuses on e-learning platforms, by the means of a descriptive and correlational study design, with N = 431. The results reveal that there is still a long road ahead to ensure that these tools work optimally to enable professors to fully exert their teaching profession. We can conclude that the online teaching system needs to be improved regarding the technical service that the university offers.

Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003) is a very dark dystopian fable which introduces the reader to a post-apocalyptic scenario in which the planet Earth is on the edge of destruction, and human beings have been almost completely eradicated and substituted for a new, genetically-engineered, race. In this article, I am going to analyse the fundamental role phallogocentrism plays in the destruction of humanity and in the creation of a new world order populated by primitive but more ecological creatures.

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