Perspectives and applications of virtual reality in higher education: An analysis of Latin America’s publications

Abstract

Virtual reality’s (VR) applications in education have been a topic of interest to the academia in recent years. Although literature expands significantly worldwide, the focus on education still presents a high number of opportunities to explore. In Latin America, the literature regarding the use of virtual reality is limited and not yet systematized. Therefore, the present study aims to provide an overview of Latin America’s research publications regarding the use of VR in higher education. Using bibliometric measures and coding in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases’ outputs, we analyzed 126 papers, the majority of them from social sciences, followed by engineering, business, and medicine. Content tree analysis resulted in 5 dimensions: ‘Functional aspects of using VR as a learning tool’, ‘Teaching strategies and methodologies using VR’, ‘Behavioral aspects of using VR as a learning tool’, ‘Outputs of VR use as an educational tool’ and ‘Competencies and readiness to use VR as a learning tool’. Most publications (74,6%) focus or present as one of the discussions the functional aspects of VR, such as access, viability, usefulness, virtual environment, the association with artificial intelligence, among others.