NIRSA Officiating Flag
Football
Online Course
Why an Online Course?
Officiating Flag Football online course lets you
 quickly teach officiating to students who have
never been officials before.
 allow students to work at their own pace, any
time, day or night.
 provide students with interactive, interesting
materials that they can review over and over
again.
 ensure consistent training for all applicants.
What’s in the Online
Course?
Course teaches
 Philosophy of officiating and communication
and decision-making on the field
 Basic structure of flag football and its rules
 Officials’ pre-game responsibilities and duties
 Application of signals and procedures for
downs, scoring plays, fouls, and the 4
enforcement principles
 Starting positions and responsibilities for each
official in a 2-, 3- or 4-person crew
Course has 5 units:
 Basics of Officiating
 Game Essentials and Rules Review
 Game Responsibilities
 Game Mechanics and Penalty
Enforcement
 Officiating Mechanics
It ends with a final test.
Unit 1:
Basics of Officiating
This unit teaches
 Essential objectives of officiating
 Importance of verbal and nonverbal
communication and listening
 Decision-making skills
 Conflict-resolution skills
Unit 2:
Game Essentials and Rules Review
In this unit students learn
 the basics of the game of flag football,
and
 how to apply their knowledge of flag
football rules.
Before working through each unit, students
read the relevant portions of the NIRSA
Flag Football rules book, which is online.
Unit 3:
Game Responsibilities
Here learners are taught
 the general responsibilities of a flag football
official;
 the steps to take in conducting pregame
meetings with officials and coaches or
captains;
 how to identify legal and illegal equipment; and
 the procedures for the coin toss, timing, and
overtime.
Unit 4:
Game Mechanics & Penalty
Enforcement
Here is where students learn to
 signal downs or scoring plays and determine
punts correctly;
 distinguish among dead ball fouls, fouls
simultaneous with the snap, and live-ball fouls;
 explain the four enforcement principles and
special enforcements;
 call a foul by signaling correctly and whistling,
reporting the foul to the referee, and asking the
captain for his choice (live-ball foul); and
 note special rules for corec and 4-on-4 games.
Unit 5:
Officiating Mechanics
In this final unit, students practice, for a 2person, 3-person, and 4-person crew:
 identifying each official’s starting position
before and during a pass, run, or punt
play, and in scoring situations;
 determining the responsibilities of each
official before and during a pass, run or
punt play, and in scoring situations; and
 reacting appropriately to play scenarios.
A special note:
Two-person crew procedures are not part
of the final course test, so students aren’t
required to complete that section.
If your school uses two-person crews,
however, a quiz appears at the end of the
section. Students can print out their quiz
results to confirm that they completed
that section.
The Course Test
This test has 138 questions, which include
the NIRSA rules test questions.
Students can access the course and test
for 1 year after first accessing the course.
Students can retake test once without a
fee. Subsequent tries cost $10 each.
After students pass the test, they no longer
can access it.
Course as Part of
Existing Training
Use the online course in one of several
ways:
 Preparation for pre-season rules clinic
 Supplement following pre-season rules
clinic
 Introduction to flag football principles for
applicants (in summer)
 Midseason or pre-playoff training
Sample Training Week
Mon. – Tell students how to access and
complete course. Give deadline for
completion.
Tues. – Cover material in first half of course.
Wed. – Cover material in second half of
course.
Thurs. – Do field training, using NIRSA
Training Stations.
Fri. – Offer work session for those who need
help with online course.
Course Access for
Students
Call ASEP at
1-800-747-5698
to purchase the number of courses you
need (phone orders only for bulk course
purchases).
After order has been processed, ASEP
e-mails you a spreadsheet with key
codes and distribution instructions.
Assign a key code to
each student by
e-mail or letter.
Tell students to access
the course through
the ASEP website at
www.ASEP.com
Once the student has
logged in and the
course comes up,
the introduction
explains how to
navigate the course
and general course
information.
A drop-down menu
can be opened from
each screen,
allowing students to
navigate easily
between units and
within units.
Students can also
move backward and
forward by clicking
on the arrows at the
bottom of each
screen.
Within each unit, a
progress bar at the
bottom of each
screen shows the
student how much of
the unit has been
completed.
The student may stop,
then return and
continue, at any
place in the course.
Once a student has taken the test, you can
check whether he or she has passed by
accessing the ASEP National Officials
Registry on the ASEP website.
Students can print a certificate of course
completion from the website and e-mail
their course transcript to you to document
course completion.
Accessing Course from
NIRSA Website
The course also can be accessed from the
NIRSA website.
A link on that site goes directly to a NIRSA
portal page on the ASEP site.
From that page, simply click on either
“Take Course” to begin the course or
“Continue Course” if already registered.
A New Tool for Training
Officials
The NIRSA Officiating Flag Football online course
– a new way you can train student officials
quickly and easily.