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Deciding on a Protocol Construction Strategy

There are two distinct sets of operations in the making of a protocol.  The first is the creation of groups and events.  The second is the sequencing of event names in groups.  Consequently, when there are many groups and many events as there often are, there are several different ways one might choose to create the lists of events in groups in a protocol.

Strategy 1:  Groups First, Then Events
Create all of the groups and all of the events in them.
Enter the event names in the groups.

Strategy 2:  First Group and Events, Then Second Group, Etc.
Create the first group.  
Create all of the events for that group.  
Enter the event names in that group.
Create the next group and repeat this procedure.

Strategy 3: First Group, First Event, Then Second Group
Create the first group.
Create the first event for that group.
Enter the event name for that event in the group.
Create the next event and repeat the above. 

Special Case: Random Assignment of Subjects to Groups at Run-time
Create a Super Group
Create a Random Assignment Event by Treatment

Other Considerations Involving Strategy
Another variation on the strategies above is sometimes effective because of the fact that it is often useful to create and list the names of the Treatment and Control Events before creating and listing the Support Events in the groups.  Doing it this way can help clarify what kind of support events are needed and where they event names should be inserted.

Keep in mind that when there are two or more events in a design that are identical you need not make separate events for each of them.  Instead, you can simply enter the same event names wherever they are needed.

Also, keep in mind that instead of creating an event from scratch when it is similar to one that already exists, you can Duplicate the one that is similar, customize it to fit, enter the event name in the execution list, and delete the event name that is not correct.  

There is also another powerful time-saving ProtoGenie feature that enables authors to Duplicate an entire group, thereby making another set of events that can be customized to fit specifications.  This is done under the Edit menu of the Groups page.  

You can also duplicate the list of event names in a group.  This is done under the Actions menu of the Sequencing Page.