Research background: Distance education in Bulgarian universities is a relatively new form of human capital training, applied until recently on a limited scale. The global 2020 health and economic crisis, related to the mass lockdown of the in-person educational process throughout the world, has imposed a new challenge to the anti-crisis management of the universities, schools and other educational institutions in Bulgaria: the obligatory application of the distance learning process. For the optimal development of the educational systems in the conditions of similar future crises, it is necessary to have various information about the impact of the crisis on the different groups of educational institutions and especially about the response of the students. Purpose of the article: This article aims to highlight the identified problems and challenges that distance education is facing and to provide recommendations for its future optimization to individual learners and educators, as well as to the educational institutions themselves and third stakeholders. Methods: The method of self-administered survey, conducted through Google Forms and the descriptive method, through which the authors of the article share their observations of the educational process, conducted during the lockdown, were used. Findings & Value added: Main findings include the pre- and after- lockdown levels of technical armament of the respondents, specifics of the loans taken for its provision, the forms of online training used and the personal assessment of the respondents for their effectiveness, the difficulties encountered during the educational process.

Globalization is a process with serious implications for the well-being of humankind. The development of electronic technologies and hardware has led to the emergence and expansion of global e-commerce which allows people to meet their needs for certain goods and receive financial means to do that. This article points to the results of a study of online buying habits and perceived opportunity for professional realization in e-commerce of first-year students in Economics at a smaller economic faculty in Southeast Europe, born in the late Y generation, with a minimum period of higher education in majors other than e-commerce. The relationship with the education and training, required to carry out these activities was specifically sought. The method of self-administered survey was used. 58 usable questionnaires were collected. Results show that respondents buy online mostly clothes, shoes, cosmetics and electronics and pay usually by bank cards; the main reasons for this kind of purchasing being the lower price and non-availability of the goods otherwise. Only 12.07% of the respondents have conducted commercial sales via the Internet and out of them 57.1% are satisfied with the income, but only at the-pocket-money-level. 36.2% of all respondents are ready to seek training in order to be able to earn a living in this way, which points to a niche in the educational services market.

Globalization is the reason for significant changes in all spheres of life. Its effects on the world economy have been observed for a long time. The impact of globalization is an important economic matter and its research is as important. The aim of this research is to track the trends in the development of the digital economy in Bulgaria and the corresponding occurring change which follow it. Bulgaria established itself as one of the key centers for innovative development in 2018 and one of the reasons for that is precisely the globalization in the sphere of economy and information and communications technologies. The country's digital economy forestalls the trends and grows 2.5 times faster than the economies of the big five on the European Union's market. The transformation of the Bulgarian economy would increase its competitiveness and would place it at a leading position in the region. Due to these and many other reasons it is important for these matters to be analyzed from a scientific point of view. This paper contributes for the clearer formulation and understanding of the matters related to globalization as a whole, but also for tracking its impact on the state of digital companies in Bulgaria. Similar research can be applied and further developed for each and every European country and more.