Randomization in Excel

This article talks about some of the advantages and disadvantages of randomizing using Excel and also gives a step by step guide on how to do so.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Randomizing using Excel

Advantages

Here are some of the advantages of randomizing using Excel :

• Balance/stratification can be achieved during a randomization using Excel.
• Randomization using Excel is simple to implement and produces a record.
• Since Excel is widely used, it is commonly understood and used by project staff.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of using Excel to randomize are as follows:

• Excel is more mysterious to beneficiaries than public randomization(For example - drawing names from a hat, etc)
• Randomization in Excel is less replicable than randomization using Stata.
• Since the randomization involves copying and pasting, it can be subject to human errors.
• It is also less flexible to changes in randomization plan.

Steps to Randomization in Excel

Here are the steps of doing a successful randomization using Excel:

• The first thing that needs to be done is to define a randomization rule. For example = the lowest 50% will be treatment, the rest will be assigned to control, etc.
• Assign random numbers to each observation. While doing this, use "paste values" to stop recalculating the randomization.
  =rand()
• Sort the random numbers from the lowest to the highest.
• Created an ordered serial number.
• Assign groups using either the mod or the if formulas.
• Save the record.