As a variation on Charlie's suggestion, I'd like to propose assigning points to individual students for having a certain value for a characteristic:
points = total population / group size Assume 400 students: 200 Europeans, 100 Asians, 50 Africans, 50 Oceanians. Europeans: 400/200: 2 points each. Asians: 400/100: 4 points etc. Repeat this for every characteristic. In the end, every student will have accumulated points for uniqueness. You want to assign the high point students to their own group first because they are very valueable from a uniqueness standpoint. So distribute the top 25 unique students over 25 groups first, then randomly distribute the next 25 students over the groups etc. I realize that you are giving more total points to characteristics with more possible values but I think that still achieves the goal of making each group as diverse as possible. The benefit is that the above method is fairly easy to program and with two tables and a bit of sql and some CF loops the overall goal can be achieved. I'm curious about how you end up doing it! Good luck! Mischa. ------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, manage your profile @ http://www.acfug.org?fa=login.edituserform For more info, see http://www.acfug.org/mailinglists Archive @ http://www.mail-archive.com/discussion%40acfug.org/ List hosted by http://www.fusionlink.com -------------------------------------------------------------
