DAKAR (Senegal) - FIBA Africa has introduced webinar courses to continue with coaching education across the African continent as a top priority at a time when international travel is limited and contact is prohibited for purposes of safety as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Working remotely has quickly become the new norm and way of operations and because of that FIBA has embraced new ways of education that are widely welcomed by the participants. 

Organized by the FIBA Africa National Federation and Sports Department in-charge Lemou Benga, these webinar courses are at the heart of the strategy to make lemonade from the current situation and utilize this time to be active. 

"FIBA AFRICA SEIZED THIS OPPORTUNITY TO POPULARIZE NON-DIPLOMA DISTANCE LEARNING FOR THE MOMENT BUT RATHER INFORMATIVE. I THINK IT IS VERY GOOD. DISTANCE LEARNING IS THE MOST LOGICAL ANSWER TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING COACHES EDUCATIONALLY. "- Sarr

Senegalese Cheikh Sarr and Nour Amri from Morocco are the two FIBA instructors that were in charge of the first one engaging coaches from Algeria, Morocco and Senegal with a total of 89 attendees. 

Speaking to FIBA.basketball, Sarr said, "FIBA Africa seized this opportunity to popularize non-diploma distance learning for the moment but rather informative. I think it is very good. Distance learning is the most logical answer to continue to support coaches educationally."

"This is a good opportunity for FIBA to test its new organizational capacities for meetings as well as for training. Trainers must learn teaching techniques (ICT) in order to be up to-date on the educational level. These online courses provide more accessibility and reach hundreds of people in record time. One of the limits is the interaction because the lessons are more formal than directed with a few questions asked by the participants at the end."

The continent has been divided into groups of three to six countries at a time and will have four-day workshops depending on the languages of instruction from English to French. 

"For the moment, we have done some online courses on leadership, training methodology, offensive individual fundamentals and planning. The next courses will focus on conferences with multiple and varied themes."

The coaching courses that started on May 13 will go on until July 20 when the whole continent will be covered entirely all the way from the north to down south with thousands of coaches in attendance. 

FIBA