## 1 Introduction
For example, CABEI financed in 2023 the construction and improvement of educational infrastructure in Guatem, benefiting more than 107,000 students [23], provided a USD 80 million loan in 2019 to the Republic of Honduras for the \"Program for the Integral Improvement of Educational Infrastructure and Training in Honduras\" [24] to promote progress in improving the infrastructure of public education centers, and also supported, in 2022, the creation of an immersive virtual room in the National Art Museum of Guatem to enrich the cultural experience of visitors through advanced technology [25]. These initiatives not only improve access to education and culture, but also lay the groundwork for integrating emerging technologies such as virtual reality into the educational environment. In addition, the increase in infrastructure and digital capabilities thanks to CABEI's efforts has provided a special context for examining the reception of virtual reality (VR) in the region's universities. Another outstanding example of CABEI's promotion of advanced technologies in the Latin American and Caribbean region was the financing of the Agriculture and Technology (AgTec) 2022 event, organized by Zamorano University, with the sponsorship of CABEI's DYNAMIC II initiative [26]. This event brought together nearly 900 participants, including students, graduates, industry, and development institutions, to share innovations in processes, products, and services aimed at improving the resilience and equity of agri-food systems. This event discussed how the inclusion of technologies such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence offers a relevant framework for considering the expansion and acceptance of virtual reality in educational contexts, given its low adoption in the region, which does not exceed 2% among small-scale farmers [26]. Along the same lines, in 2020 CABEI held the forum \"Science, Technology and Innovation for Development: the necessary normality\" [27], in which the possibility of regional integration was proposed based on science and technology systems linked between countries and their productive systems. This forum also discussed possible solutions to the most urgent problems based on investment in research and development in Latin America, as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the low scientific and technological capacity as well as the relative backwardness in the use of information technologies. Likewise, CABEI's initiative to support the development of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy in coordination with the Executive Directorate of the Innovation Cabinet of the Dominican Republic exemplifies the entity's commitment to the promotion and adoption of advanced technologies [28]. These supports, initiatives, and efforts provide a solid framework to drive research and development, which is crucial to understand the potential for integration of technologies such as virtual reality in higher education in the region. Despite CABEI's firm commitment to the digitalization of its member countries, especially in higher education, there are no studies in the specialized literature that analyze the impact of CABEI's actions in this digital integration process. For this reason, the main purpose of this paper is to contribute to closing this gap. The general objective of this research is to analyze the reception of VR technologies by Latin American university professors, distinguishing between CABEI countries and non-CABEI countries. Specifically, it aims to achieve the following objectives: (i) to analyze the perceptions that Latin American professors have about the didactic use of VR and their self-concept of digital competence for its use; (ii) to identify gaps in the above perceptions between CABEI and non-CABEI countries; and (iii) to analyze whether the behavior of the differences in the perception of VR between private and public universities in CABEI countries is similar or different from those in non-CBEI countries.