María B. Juárez Escribano

María B. Juárez Escribano is an Assistant Professor at Nebrija University within the School of Language and Education and the Department of Didactics and School Organization. She is an active member of the CE-Ed Nebrija Research Group on Quality and Equity in Education and was formerly associated with the CEDI Research Group on Cognition, Education and Individual Differences. She also serves as student coordinator for the university’s Master’s programme in ICT for Education and Digital Learning.

María earned her PhD in 2014 from Universidad Camilo José Cela with the thesis "Virtual social networks as mass media: self-perception and user behaviour", supervised by Dr. Emilio Velasco Bartolomé. She holds double bachelor’s degrees in Audiovisual Communication and Environmental Sciences, complemented by two master’s degrees and several micro-master’s programmes in digital learning and e-learning.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital education, virtual identity, and user behaviour in networked environments. She explores how gamification, ICT integration, and virtual culture can enhance learning experiences and promote equity in education. Recent work investigates the spread of fake news and post-truth phenomena in virtual communities.

Across her publications (2018-2023) María has consistently examined virtual identity construction, gamified instructional design, digital competence, and technology-mediated pedagogies. The trajectory shows an evolution from foundational analyses of social networks as mass media to sophisticated instructional models tailored for digital learning environments.

Scientific Recognition

• Docentia Award for Teaching Excellence – Nebrija University (2020)

Teaching & International Collaboration

María has accumulated sixteen years of professional experience split between news production and higher-education teaching. She has taught at institutions such as EAE (Educational Education Institute of Madrid) and served as Visiting Professor at the University of Zadar, Croatia under an Erasmus+ mobility grant. At Nebrija she coordinates master’s students and actively participates in national and international conferences to disseminate her research.