<p>Online learning is rapidly evolving and gaining popularity due to its flexibility in both time and space. College students’ learning satisfaction is regarded as a key criterion for assessing the learning effect of online courses, and it is closely related to the quality of online courses and learners’ behavior. This study recruited 206 college students with online course experience to examine the effect of social presence on learning satisfaction. Academic emotions and self-efficacy were incorporated into the research model to explore the underlying mechanisms linking social presence and learning satisfaction, leading to the following conclusions: social presence was significantly and positively associated with college student’ learning satisfaction; positive academic emotions and self-efficacy were significantly and positively associated with college students’ learning satisfaction; negative academic emotions was significantly and negatively associated with college students’ learning satisfaction; positive academic emotions and self-efficacy partially mediate the relationship between social presence and college students’ learning satisfaction; academic emotions and self-efficacy chain mediate the relationship between social presence and college students’ learning satisfaction.</p>