The project sought to adapt a maternity nursing course and a series of pharmacology lessons for use on a computer-based teaching system (PLATO, Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operation) and to study the relationships of process variables to student achievement in a self-directed learning situation. A combination of tutorial-inquiry teaching strategy permitted the student nurses in the study to gather data, perform simulated experiments, and respond to questions as they interacted with the computer. The PLATO system and procedures used in the study (the 140 subjects, instructional content, lesson preparation, content evaluation, the instructional method, the teaching logic, and record keeping) are described. The results presented showed that, by objective measurement, students learned the same material presented in a classroom on PLATO as well or better in one-third to one-half the time. Student and instructor attitudes toward PLATO were found to be generally favorable. Also included is a 15-item reference list and the following appended material: comparison and evaluation data for lesson forms, learning for specific lessons, and student performance; forms for student and teacher evaluation of PLATO; lesson objectives and sample materials; and a materials evaluation form. (Author/MS)