Since 1967 the Appalachian Adult Education Center in cooperation with thirteen State departments of education has established several adult learning centers to provide services to the hard-core educationally disadvantaged and to test one specific method of operation to meet individual needs most effectively. Through this document, an attempt is made to formulate a broad and comprehensive design for an operational learning center, including objectives, physical structure, materials, requirements for directors and staff members, and student recruitment techniques. A program of diagnosis, prescription and evaluation is outlined; sample record sheets, enrollment forms, study schedules and other forms make up a large part of the document. An evaluation of the learning center program, Ohio Module, is offered in tabular form. In a comparison with traditional classroom adult instruction, the learning center showed 1.5 times the gain per hour in reading for 100 hours of instruction, and home instruction by paraprofessionals working out of learning centers showed 2.5 times the gain of the traditional classroom. (AJ)