MINERVA VOICES

A Conversation with Assistant Professor Alexandra Digby

by Savannah Casavant-Jackson | Class of 2024

January 27, 2022

Written by: Savannah Casavant-Jackson, Class of 2024
Interviewed by: Leandra Pedretti, Class of 2022

When Assistant Professor Alexandra Digby first heard about Minerva from a friend, she was motivated to learn more about the new university. At the time, she was teaching at the University of Cambridge, having recently completed her Ph.D. in economic history. Minerva’s fully active learning pedagogy stood out compared to her previous experiences in higher education, which she describes as rooted in traditional teaching styles. Over the next month or so, Digby continued to think about Minerva’s innovative learning approach and discussion-based teaching platform, Forum, and when she started to look for faculty positions, she decided to apply to Minerva. After she was accepted as a faculty member in the Social Sciences College, Digby was excited to begin using Forum’s technology to increase engagement in her classroom.

Unlike other virtual meeting platforms, Forum was designed using research from the science of learning to become a superior classroom for students and teachers. By allowing professors to facilitate interactive discussions through polls, breakout groups, and simulations, Forum fosters high levels of student engagement. This fully active learning pedagogy has shown to be a more effective way for students to learn and apply knowledge compared with traditional information dissemination. Additionally, after each class, it generates participant data, such as talk time, allowing professors and students to track performance and receive feedback more efficiently.

The benefits of Forum are not only for students as Digby finds teaching at Minerva to be more enjoyable and acknowledges that her teaching has improved greatly thanks to Forum. Compared to her previous experience with lecture halls where professors disseminate information to a passive student audience, Digby finds that Minerva fosters an environment in which students can freely challenge economic ideas and concepts introduced in class. Given the diverse student body at Minerva, she encourages students to apply their broad range of perspectives and incorporate current events from their hometowns into class discussions and assignments. This has been particularly valuable in the context of evaluating different central bank and government policy responses to the economic fallout from the current pandemic.

Her advice has been heeded and Digby finds that many lively Forum discussions often continue among her students after class or her office hours are officially over. Moreover, with classes capped at 20 students, Digby appreciates being able to have meaningful conversations with all of her students during lessons. Despite her physical distance, as Digby resides in upstate New York and with students throughout the world on the global rotation, she has been able to form close relationships with students.

Digby admits that Forum may seem futuristic in a world where the traditional continues to predominate, yet her experience has been and continues to be overwhelmingly positive. A piece of advice Digby wants to pass on to her students is that although the state of the world is uncertain, they should find comfort in education as a constant source of enjoyment, “Turn the situation into a positive, focus on your studies, and keep going with your academic rigor and learning. Make that your priority despite the crazy world around you!”

Quick Facts

Name
Country
Class
Major

Social Sciences & Business

Business & Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Computational Sciences & Social Sciences

Computer Science & Arts and Humanities

Business and Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Arts and Humanities

Business, Social Sciences

Business & Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

Data Science, Statistics

Computational Sciences

Business

Computational Sciences, Data Science

Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Business, Natural Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Computational Sciences, Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Science

Social Sciences, Business

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Science

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Science, Statistic Natural Sciences

Business & Social Sciences

Computational Science, Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Business

Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Arts and Humanities

Computational Science

Minor

Computational Science & Business

Economics

Social Sciences

Concentration

Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence & Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Designing Societies & New Ventures

Strategic Finance & Data Science and Statistics

Brand Management and Designing Societies

Data Science & Economics

Machine Learning

Cells, Organisms, Data Science, Statistics

Arts & Literature and Historical Forces

Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science

Cells and Organisms, Mind and Emotion

Economics, Physics

Managing Operational Complexity and Strategic Finance

Global Development Studies and Brain, Cognition, and Behavior

Scalable Growth, Designing Societies

Business

Drug Discovery Research, Designing and Implementing Policies

Historical Forces, Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology

Designing Solutions, Data Science and Statistics

Data Science and Statistic, Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science

Strategic Finance, Politics, Government, and Society

Data Analysis, Cognition

Brand Management

Data Science and Statistics & Economics

Cognitive Science & Economics

Data Science and Statistics and Contemporary Knowledge Discovery

Internship
Higia Technologies
Project Development and Marketing Analyst Intern at VIVITA, a Mistletoe company
Business Development Intern, DoSomething.org
Business Analyst, Clean Energy Associates (CEA)

Conversation

Written by: Savannah Casavant-Jackson, Class of 2024
Interviewed by: Leandra Pedretti, Class of 2022

When Assistant Professor Alexandra Digby first heard about Minerva from a friend, she was motivated to learn more about the new university. At the time, she was teaching at the University of Cambridge, having recently completed her Ph.D. in economic history. Minerva’s fully active learning pedagogy stood out compared to her previous experiences in higher education, which she describes as rooted in traditional teaching styles. Over the next month or so, Digby continued to think about Minerva’s innovative learning approach and discussion-based teaching platform, Forum, and when she started to look for faculty positions, she decided to apply to Minerva. After she was accepted as a faculty member in the Social Sciences College, Digby was excited to begin using Forum’s technology to increase engagement in her classroom.

Unlike other virtual meeting platforms, Forum was designed using research from the science of learning to become a superior classroom for students and teachers. By allowing professors to facilitate interactive discussions through polls, breakout groups, and simulations, Forum fosters high levels of student engagement. This fully active learning pedagogy has shown to be a more effective way for students to learn and apply knowledge compared with traditional information dissemination. Additionally, after each class, it generates participant data, such as talk time, allowing professors and students to track performance and receive feedback more efficiently.

The benefits of Forum are not only for students as Digby finds teaching at Minerva to be more enjoyable and acknowledges that her teaching has improved greatly thanks to Forum. Compared to her previous experience with lecture halls where professors disseminate information to a passive student audience, Digby finds that Minerva fosters an environment in which students can freely challenge economic ideas and concepts introduced in class. Given the diverse student body at Minerva, she encourages students to apply their broad range of perspectives and incorporate current events from their hometowns into class discussions and assignments. This has been particularly valuable in the context of evaluating different central bank and government policy responses to the economic fallout from the current pandemic.

Her advice has been heeded and Digby finds that many lively Forum discussions often continue among her students after class or her office hours are officially over. Moreover, with classes capped at 20 students, Digby appreciates being able to have meaningful conversations with all of her students during lessons. Despite her physical distance, as Digby resides in upstate New York and with students throughout the world on the global rotation, she has been able to form close relationships with students.

Digby admits that Forum may seem futuristic in a world where the traditional continues to predominate, yet her experience has been and continues to be overwhelmingly positive. A piece of advice Digby wants to pass on to her students is that although the state of the world is uncertain, they should find comfort in education as a constant source of enjoyment, “Turn the situation into a positive, focus on your studies, and keep going with your academic rigor and learning. Make that your priority despite the crazy world around you!”