Social presence and online learning satisfaction: Serial mediation by flow experience and learning engagement

Although cross-sectional studies have documented a close association between social presence and online learning satisfaction ﴾OLS﴿, evidence from multiwave survey studies remains limited, and the psychological processes underlying this relationship have not been sufficiently clarified. Guided by the cognitive–affective–social theory of learning in digital environments, we conducted a three-wave survey study to examine whether social presence predicts subsequent OLS, incorporating the mediating roles of flow experience and learning engagement. We gathered data from 687 Chinese university students in three monthly assessments over a 3-month period. Higher social presence was positively associated with higher subsequent OLS, and flow experience and learning engagement acted as serial mediators of this association. These results provide valuable implications for designing interventions to enhance OLS among college students.