As managers of tertiary education face with the reality of making online learning a matter of course because of the Covid-19 pandemic and lessons thereof, students’ flow experience and perception of quality become important inputs in the online model. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigates the state of tertiary students’ flow experience in the teaching and learning environment, and how that affect their perception of learning quality; and subsequently influence students’ acceptance of the online learning environment as an alternative learning environment in the Ghanaian tertiary education space. Data was collected from 367 of seven technical universities in Ghana who experienced the transition from their usual face-to-face learning to online learning because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study used stepwise regression, Wilks’ Lambda Multivariate Test and crosstabulation as analysis methods. Results showed that flow experience contribute significantly to online learning service quality. Also, online learning service quality was found to has a link with students’ preference of online learning. More importantly, overall flow experience was found to have a significant influence on students’ preference of online learning as an alternative to face-to-face learning. The related practical and policy implications of the positive effect of flow experience and students’ preference of online learning were discussed.

Keywords: learning preference, online learning, online service quality, service preference