This study examined the differential effects of a course-based treatment (i.e., students' direct application of reading strategies to their own college texts) versus a content-based treatment (i.e., student application of reading strategies to texts provided in the reading class) on various measures of student achievement and psychological functioning related to academic learning. The study involved 47 college students at North Carolina State University and incorporated a quasi-experimental, two group, two observation (pretest/posttest) design. Students were taught and practiced using the PROR (Preread-Read-Organize-Review) textbook reading strategy. Overall, students from both the course- and content-based treatment groups reported positive attitudes towards the course and the PROR strategy, showed gains in their learning skills, and also indicated that they were using and would continue to use the PROR strategy for their textbook reading assignments. However, students in the course-based group were more likely to be using each component of PROR, and it was found that this group used the reading strategy more in other courses. Contains 28 references. (GLR)