Holdings Alumni Association Alumni Maryann D. Bitzer Papers Finding Aid By Chloe Attrell
Title: Maryann D. Bitzer Papers, 1958-1994
ID: 26/20/283
Extent: 2.0 cubic feet
Date Acquired: 09/02/2025
Subjects: Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL), Nursing, PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations)
Papers of Maryann D. Bitzer (University of Illinois, B.S., Nursing & M.S., Educational Psychology). Contains materials related to the use of computers in nursing education, including: publications, grant applications and project reports, nursing instruction materials and statistics, correspondence, photographs and slides, and a film. Bitzer implemented the PLATO computer system (which her husband, Donald L. Bitzer, invented) into nursing curricula, and her papers document this work.
Maryann Drost Bitzer (1935-2022) was born in Highland, Illinois, and grew up in Maryville, Illinois. She received a diploma in nursing from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Urbana, Illinois, in 1959 and subsequently was employed by that school of nursing as Assistant Instructor of Basic Nursing, Clinical Intstructor in Medical-Surgical Nursing, Social Sciences Instructor, and as Project Director for the Computer-Based Instruction project.
In work initiated for her M.S. degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Maryann Bitzer first investigated the use of computers to teach nursing. With a subsequent grant from the Nurse Training Act of HEW, she designed, developed, implemented, and researched the first computer-based education nursing course. Bitzer's early computer-based education work presented students with M-S Nursing, Pharmacology, and Maternity Nursing, and produced via the computer silumated patients and laboratory experiences, thus creating a milieu that was safe, economical, and efficient for learning.
Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL)
Nursing
PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations)
Repository: University of Illinois Archives
Access Restrictions:
The following folders are restricted and require permission from the University Archivist for access (please direct further inquiries to illiarch@illinois.edu):
Box 1 Folder 21 "Grant Application: 'Adaptation of Nursing Education to Mastery Education: Thus Producing a Curriculum that is Self-Paced and Success Oriented,' 1970-1971"
Box 1 Folder 22 "Grant Application: Computer-Assisted Instruction of Basic Nursing Utilizing Inquiry Approach - Training Project Grant Continuation, 1967-1968"
Box 1 Folder 23 "Grant Applications, Budgets, and Proposal, 1966-1968"
Acquisition Source: David Bitzer
Related Materials: Donald L. Bitzer Papers, 1953-2022 For more information please see https://archon.library.illinois.edu/archives/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=13434&q=bitzer.
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/2620283.pdf
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