Accompanying the rapid changes in technology has been a greater dependence on automation and numerical control, which has resulted in the need to find ways of preparing programers for industrial machines using numerical control. To compare the hands-on equipment method and a visual media method of teaching numerical control, an experimental and a control group of 47 college industrial technical education students were selected. The analysis of data collected by means of an achievement test, a performance test, and an interest inventory revealed no significant difference between the two methods. A major conclusion was that college students enrolled in a general metals course have relatively equal success at programing point-to-point numerical control problems from either a hands-on equipment method or a visual media method. This Ed.D. dissertation was presented to Arizona State University. (Author/JS)