Institutional Ecosystem and Online Teaching Competency: A Comparative Study of Government and Private College Teachers in West Bengal Through the Lens of Ecological Systems Theory

Abstract

The study is based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to understand the college teachers’ work environment. Researchers created a scale called the Online Teaching Competency Scale to measure how well teachers can teach online in various types of institutions. Two hundred and forty data points from government colleges and 240 data points from private colleges were collected from various parts of Kolkata, West Bengal. They were divided into two groups to test their competency level. Various statistical tests were implemented to test the results. Results revealed statistically significant differences between the two sets of college teachers across all four competency dimensions: technological competency (t(478) = 6.83, p < .001, d = 0.62), pedagogical competency (t(478) = 5.41, p < .001, d = 0.49), communicative competency (t(478) = 4.97, p < .001, d = 0.45), and evaluative competency (t(478) = 7.12, p < .001, d = 0.65). MANOVA yielded Wilks’ Λ = 0.761, F(4, 475) = 37.24, p < .001, η² = .239. SEM confirmed that institutional ecosystem characteristics significantly predicted online teaching competency (β = 0.58, p < .001, R² = .51). These findings are understood using EST. This shows that institutional variables within a mesosystem have an impact on online teaching competency. This link has not been studied before in higher education.