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Dear colleagues I am about to conduct a (small) RCT of a continuing professional educational intervention with nurses comparing problem based learning with standard small group learning. Our proposed method of randomization was to use a computerized table of random numbers. However the practicalities of the situation mean we won't know the final list of participants really until the course starts and those participants wo register prior to the beginning of the course need to know which days they need to obtain as study leave (it is a part time course) as early as possible in order to make the necessary cover arrangements (the different groups are 'taught' on different days to avoid contamination between groups) . So basically we need to randomly allocate people as soon as they register. q.1 - I am thinking about the best way to do this - is it by just tossing a coin for each individual ? q.2 When critically appraising an RCT we ask whether the control and intervention groups were similar at the start of the trial. Now I am looking at the issue from the other end I am wondering how I can 'make sure' that the groups are similar at the start of the trial. It is after all possible that one group could end up much larger than the other if the coin tossing method is used. (Hmmm now I have written this I think I have a better answer - but I would like to hear your suggestions anyway) mark Mark Newman ESRC Research Fellow School of Life Long Learning and Education & School of Health, Biological & Environmental Sciences Middlesex University Furnival Building, Archway Campus Highgate Hill London N19 3UA Tel 020 8362 6702 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%