Novo faculty, staff have new resource to aid students in distress

A new online training program is designed to help New College faculty and staff recognize and help students who may be dealing with depression or other mental health issues.
The program, called Kognito – At-Risk for Faculty & Staff, is a guided simulation of several possible conversations between a professor and students with varying problems.
The animations have various threads built into the narrative. The conversation will take different turns depending on what question you select to ask the student. An animated Kognito “instructor” will pop up occasionally to keep you on the right path to successfully complete each exercise.
“As faculty and staff, we can take small steps that make a big difference,” Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Loretta Shields wrote in a Nov. 14 memo. The goal is to “help us learn to notice signs of distress, use techniques to discuss our concerns, and, if necessary, refer students to appropriate resources.”
The simulation can be accessed when faculty or staff log into https://www.ncf.edu and click on the Kognito tile on their App Gateway. Training is designed to take no more than 45 minutes but can be completed in multiple sittings, as progress is saved until the training is completed. Shields cautioned the app will not work using Internet Explorer. Users should view the training in other browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge.
Shields is asking that faculty and staff complete the training by May 1, 2020.