Anticode Open builder

Build a random name picker and team generator for your class or meeting

A random name picker looks like a one-line program, but teachers and meeting hosts need more than a random choice: no one picked twice before everyone's had a turn, teams of even size, two people kept apart, and the same class list ready tomorrow. Anticode can build that as a small app that saves your lists on your device.

Updated · By the Anticode team

Picking: fair, not just random

Pure randomness feels unfair in a classroom: the same student can come up three times in a lesson while others never do. Decide which behaviour you want before you build, because it changes the logic.

With replacement
Every name is equally likely each time. Repeats happen. Good for prize draws where each draw is independent.
Without replacement
Names leave the hat once picked until everyone has had a turn, then the hat refills. This is what most teachers mean by fair.
Absent today
A quick toggle per name so the picker skips them, without deleting them from the class.
Weighted
Rarely wanted. If you do, make the weights visible so nobody suspects a fix.

Ask for the browser's cryptographic random source rather than the everyday one. For a classroom the difference is academic, but it costs nothing and settles the "is it rigged" question.

Making teams and groups

A random team generator needs a few rules to be useful:

  1. Group by size or by count. "Groups of 4" or "5 groups". Spread the remainder so you get 4, 4, 4, 3, not 4, 4, 4, 1.
  2. Keep apart. Pairs who shouldn't be together. The app reshuffles until no rule is broken, or tells you the rules can't all be met.
  3. Keep together. For a student who needs a particular partner.
  4. Balance. Optional tags (year group, confidence, role) spread evenly across teams.
  5. Lock and reshuffle. Lock one group you like and reshuffle the rest.

Show the result in a layout you can project: team names in large type, members listed under each, and a print layout for the register (ask for it and try it with the browser's print command).

The reveal is part of the point

In a classroom, a short animation (a wheel, a slot-machine roll, names flicking past) builds anticipation and makes the choice feel visibly random. Keep it short, a second or two, with a setting to skip it, and honour the reduced-motion setting on the device. A spin-the-wheel app is a different take on the same idea, better for prize draws than for groups.

Describing it to Anticode

"A name picker for classroom use. Save several class lists by name. Pick without repeats until everyone's been chosen, with an absent toggle per student. A team maker: groups of N or N groups, keep-apart and keep-together pairs, lock a group and reshuffle the rest. A projector view with big type. A history of today's picks. Bright but not childish, high contrast, works with a keyboard."

Anticode's model writes this as one app that runs in the browser. Your class lists, rules and history are saved in that browser on that computer, so you can open it tomorrow and carry on. Ask for paste-in from a spreadsheet column so entering thirty names takes seconds.

Privacy and storage

Students' names are personal data. With this app they never leave the device: Anticode apps run in a sandbox with no network, so names typed in stay in that browser's storage and aren't sent to Anticode or anyone else. That's a reasonable thing to tell a data-protection lead. The flip side is that the lists live on one computer. A colleague using the same published app sees an empty picker, and clearing the browser's data clears your classes.

Limits

  • No sync between your school laptop and home computer. Ask for an export of your class lists as a file if you need to move them.
  • No students joining on their phones. Shared sessions need a server; the picker runs on the teacher's screen only.
  • No import from a school information system. Paste names in.
  • No proof for prize draws. For a draw with legal rules, use a method your rules accept; a browser picker leaves no independent record.

For classroom games that use the teams afterwards, see educational game maker and the scoreboard app.

Questions people ask

Can the random name picker avoid picking the same person twice?

Yes. Ask for picking without replacement; names come back once everyone has been chosen.

Can it make teams of equal ability?

If you tag students, it can spread tags evenly across teams. Without tags it can only balance team size.

Do I need to sign in?

No. Visitors to the published picker don't sign in; their lists stay in their own browser.