A July survey of students, faculty and staff revealed deep and widespread support for a face covering requirement on campus for fall semester.

While the campus face covering policy announced last week is based on best available medical advice, the survey indicates strong support for that decision.

The survey also sought student preferences with regard to in-person, online and blended class modalities. Responses varied widely among various student groups – new students, returning students, graduate students and professional students – but one consistent factor was a strong preference for asynchronous online courses (students engage with the course on their own schedule) over synchronous courses (class sessions conducted live at a scheduled time). Survey results will inform decisions on in-person, online and blended class options in the spring.

Here are highlights of the survey results:

• 90% of faculty and staff and 83.9% of students agreed that face coverings should be required while you are physically on-campus. The UMKC policy is that face coverings or masks are required in all indoor spaces, except when you're alone in a private office, and are required in all outside spaces when physical distancing of six feet cannot be maintained per Kansas City order. 
  
  
• Class modality preferences:
  • Incoming new students: 56.2% prefer face-to-face, 46.1% blended and 25.6% asynchronous online courses
  • All undergraduate students: 42.9% prefer asynchronous online, 40.1% face-to-face and 37.2% blended
  • Graduate students: 40.4% prefer blended, followed by any online modality
  • Professional students: 46.6% prefer face-to-face, 34.4% blended and 29.1% asynchronous online

Note: percentages on class modality preferences are not cumulative since this question allowed students to select multiple preferences.

• Student meetings/consultations with faculty and staff:
  • Incoming new students preferred appointments over walk-in unscheduled sessions, either in-person or virtual
    • Exceptions: walk-in preferred for Roo Wellness and UMKC Central
  • All other students preferred virtual sessions by appointment
    • Exception: walk-in preferred for Roo Wellness
• Survey response rates: more than 6,000 students, faculty, and staff responded
  • Faculty: 23.6%
  • Staff: 28.5%
  • Students: 30.7%