Ordinal Items are ranked on a continuum. A good example of ordinal data is the college football polls. The No. 1 team can have 1,212 points, the No. 2 team 1,200 points, and the No. 3 team 900 points. You have rank order but no equal intervals. Nominal Arbitrary numerals or other symbols are used to classify persons, objects or characteristics.
Gender is a good example of nominal data.
The researcher assigns the numbers. Year in school is good too. Freshman, sophmore, junuior or senior. You will come to appreciate the importance of understanding level of measurement as the semester progresses. Only certain level of measurements can be used to get viable results from some descriptive statistics and some statistical tests.