Primary characteristics, such as age, gender and ethnicity, and secondary characteristics, such as occupation, income and marital status, can have implications for a student's persistence. Most online learners are married and work full-time, making time management crucial when juggling family, work, and school responsibilities. As a middle school teacher, it is important that I understand both the primary and secondary characteristics of my students. that I can plan my schedule accordingly. I teach in a very diverse school, which means I have to plan a variety of activities so that I can engage all of my students. The ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of students in each class is enormous. Often I find it necessary to communicate content in different ways within the same class. This places importance on individualized, self-paced instruction, something the online component can address. Transforming my traditional classroom into a hybrid classroom would allow more of my 210 students to participate in the learning process. A learner's ability to interact with others and their attitude toward learning can have a profound impact on student success. According to the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales (Grasha, 1996), six categories – independent, dependent, competitive, collaborative, avoidant, and participating – are used to describe students' learning styles. These different learning styles affect the level of support the instructor must provide. Additionally, it is important to understand students' learning styles so that instructors provide ample opportunities for students to feel comfortable in their classroom. Understanding the impact of learning styles on student engagement helps explain the middle of the article... ...offering my students different levels of autonomy through the use of My Big Campus, the new online learning platform that we use at my school. I hope that this combination of support and flexibility will allow my students to progress as I teach them to become more confident and independent learners throughout the year. Works CitedGrasha, AF (1996). Teach with style. Pittsburgh: Alliance Publishers. Grow, Gerald O. (1996). Teach learners to be independent. Adult EducationQuaternary, 41 (3), 125-149. Extended version available online at http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow. Hannifin, M., Land, S. and Oliver, K. (1999). Open learning environments: foundations, methods and models. In CM Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Educational Theory, 2, pp. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum.