In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Donald Burrill) wrote:
> Generate a set of, say, 3- or 4-digit numbers. Print each on one
side
> of a card. Shuffle the cards. Take the cards (or a sufficiently
large
> subset of them) into the classroom where you introduce the survey to
the
> participants. Visibly shuffle them again, and deal them (face down),
or
> have assistants deal them, one to a customer. Explain why you need
the
> numbers, ask them to memorize their own code (and/or squirrel the
card
> away in a safe place where they can find it later), and write it in
the
> space provided for the purpose on the survey response forms.
>
> If you are dealing with classroom-sized groups of participants (i.e.,
> fewer than 52 persons per subgroup) you could use ordinary playing
cards
> plus a precoded identifier for the subgroup. Makes a 2-character
> identifier, possibly easier to remember than an arbitrary 3- or 4-
digit
> number (though people seem to do all right with PINs for their ATM
> cards): AH for ace of hearts, 3S for trey of spades, etc. And you'd
> have to ask them to remember the subgroup identifier as well, but
perhaps
> you could use a single alphabetic character for that (or a number if
> there are ten or fewer groups).
> (Make sure you remove the jokers etc. before you shuffle & deal!)
One thing I've wanted to try, but never gotten around to, is to use
names instead of numbers. Consider doing the random assignments using
cards, as above, but the codes could be:
* names of presidents, prime ministers, or royalty, as appropriate
* states, provinces
* countries
* chemical elements
You'd want to remove similar names (John Adams vs John Quincy Adams,
etc.)
Have fun!
Andrew
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