If a student does not fully participate in Discussions it is hard to understand that student's learning style, though we said it would be dependent. I sometimes have students who do very well on exams but do not fully participate in Discussions, or if they do, their sentences are very short. Some students stick to themselves and are not very involved in talk, but this doesn't mean the student is struggling or dependent. In fact, some are at the top of the class. I find this also happens in a face-to-face class.
