The digital era is driving changes in the field of education, and virtual teaching and research communities are increasingly attracting attention as a new platform for teachers’ professional development. Based on the UTAUT theoretical model, this study uses entropy value method and path analysis to explore the key influencing factors in the community framework of virtual teaching and research community and their roles in the improvement of teachers’ professional competence. Data were collected through the questionnaire method, 240 questionnaires were distributed, and 203 valid questionnaires were recovered to conduct an empirical study on the behavior of virtual teaching and research platform use and teachers’ professional competence. The results show that: performance expectations, social influence and personal knowledge management needs have a significant positive effect on teachers’ willingness to use the virtual teaching and research platform, with correlation coefficients of 0.458, 0.386 and 0.439 respectively; personal knowledge management needs, enabling factors and willingness to use have a significant positive effect on the behavior of use, and the regression equation is Y = 0.254 × personal knowledge management needs + 0.297 × Enablers + 0.308 x Willingness to use. The overall mean value of teachers’ professional competence evaluation was 4.16, with the highest score for teaching behavior (4.22) and the lowest score for teaching skills (4.09). The results of the evaluation of teachers’ professional competence based on the entropy method showed that practical teaching development ability (4.31) and spiritual education ability (4.31) were the most recognized competence dimensions by students. This study enriches the research on the influencing factors of virtual teaching and research community at the theoretical level, and provides a basis for constructing an efficient virtual teaching and research community at the practical level, which is of great significance in promoting teachers’ active participation in virtual teaching and research activities and enhancing teachers’ professional competence.
