The CS-orona Initiative: Fulfilling the Organizational Needs of Israeli High School Computer Science Teachers during the Corona Pandemic

This experience report focuses on the community of Israeli high school computer science (CS) teachers during the corona pandemic. Like most educational systems worldwide, which were suddenly shut down during the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the Israeli education system was closed from March 12, 2020 until the end of the school year. However, since the national CS matriculation exam was scheduled for June 24, 2020, and since not all teachers finished teaching all of the required material and preparing their pupils for the exam, the Central CS Supervisory Unit, at the Ministry of Education, launched the CS-orona initiative whose purpose was to support teachers and pupils in their preparation for the matriculation exam. The initiative was implemented mainly (but not only) through Zoom presentations by volunteer teachers, who presented lessons to their colleagues and to pupils located throughout Israel. In this paper, we present the framework of the CS-orona initiative, teachers? perceptions of its effectiveness, and lessons learned. Data was collected through questionnaires sent to (a) teachers who attended the lessons; (b) teachers who presented lessons to other teachers and pupils; and (c) pupils located throughout the country. We analyzed the data mainly according to Maslow's theory of needs, and show that the CS-orona initiative a) enabled teachers who attended lessons to fulfill their needs for safety and b) enabled teachers who presented lessens, to fulfill their need for belongingness and need for appreciation and self-esteem.