The Effects of Social and Spatial Presence on Learning Engagement in Sustainable E-Learning

E-learning offers sustainable opportunities for university students by improving educational accessibility and inclusion; however, research exploring learning engagement to ensure continuous learning quality from the perspective of presence remains limited, especially concerning spatial presence and its combined effects with social presence. The purpose of this study is to investigate how social presence and spatial presence interact to predict learning engagement in sustainable e-learning, as well as to determine whether perceived enjoyment mediates these relationships. A total of 442 Chinese university students participated in a self-report survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the conceptual model, indicating that both social presence and spatial presence play a significant positive role in e-learning engagement, with perceived enjoyment confirming its positive role as an important partial mediator. The findings make contributions to empirical research on learning engagement by optimizing presence-related factors and positive emotions in sustainable e-learning. The implications suggest that instructors and platform providers can enhance engagement by improving social presence, spatial presence, and perceived enjoyment, as outlined in the proposed solution model “social presence and spatial presence → perceived enjoyment → learning engagement”. However, due to limitations such as self-reported data, a cross-sectional study design, and cultural context, future research could incorporate behavioral data, longitudinal studies, and explore responses from diverse cultural backgrounds.