Teaching J-Term

J-Term — A Distinctive Learning Experience

NYUAD’s J-Term courses are designed as short, intensive, and highly immersive learning experiences during January. They intensify the student’s focus, reach beyond the classroom to incorporate experiential learning, and are site-specific, engaging students deeply with the people and the place where they study. Intellectually linked to their locations, the courses take advantage of local resources, explore the history, culture, economy, and society of the host communities, and often involve collaborative activities with local students and experts. The courses illuminate the interdependence of local knowledge and global awareness while fostering cross-cultural research and insights into complex global issues.

Taking a single course during the J-Term gives students more time for concentrated reflection on a dedicated topic than is the case during the semester when students must split their time between several courses. The intensity of the shared experience also forges an unusually strong bond between the students and their professors. Although the J-Term is short, it has a great impact because of its immersive character and linking of theoretical and experiential learning. All NYUAD undergraduates must complete two J-Term courses as a requirement for graduation.

A second defining feature of the J-Term courses is their pedagogy. Faculty and students explore answers to their big, hard-to-answer questions through a deep dive into how that question plays out in the sociocultural context of the location in which the course is held. J-Term courses take place in Abu Dhabi, at one of the fifteen NYU Global sites, and at different cities throughout the world. The courses must create opportunities for the class to use direct experience in the local community as an additional “text” for the classroom.