What is Affection

Student success initiatives in practice, underlying technological infrastructure, and human processes, focus almost exclusively on cognitive signals for risk, persistence, and other alert factors. Yet decades of research suggest that these signals are quite limited because learners are not compartmentalized as cognitive beings vs affective beings vs conative beings. This chapter looks to inform the creation of both technological and human measurement as well as intervention techniques for a much more holistic approach to student success efforts as told through a case study of such a system. The chapter will help technologists, researchers, and service-practitioners alike in building workflows and technological systems to promote better inputs, better triggers, and better outputs, all for human consumption in the assistance of helping students thrive.