As Alison King wrote in "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side", one of the goals of the guide is to promote active learning, "Active learning usually results in the generation of something new, such as a cause-effect relationship between two ideas, an inference, or an elaboration, and it always leads to deeper understanding. However, students do not spontaneously engage in active learning; they must be prompted to do so." (King, 1993).

Crucially, this system puts the learner at the center and in control of the direction they travel in their exploration. The Adaptive Learning Coach serves as a supportive tool for exploration, and a means of better organizing and interpreting learning across varied domains and periods of time.

It should also be noted that while many forms of learning are skills-based and can be assessed and recognized at varying levels of ability, not all evidence of learning needs to be evaluative. Learners would have the ability to curate and define their level of mastery with the evidence speaking for itself. Perhaps what they choose to share is their own personal perspective on an event or issue of significance. Others could then view and experience for themselves evidence selected by the learner and make their own subjective decisions, potentially also offering their own expert opinions/suggestions for growth.

Another key feature of the "Guide on the Side" is the ability to support collaborative investigation and learning among groups of learners and to facilitate connections and interactions between learners at various stages in their understanding. Some possibilities for how the Adaptive Learning Coach could facilitate this kind of learning and sharing are explored in the next section.