An electronic dose conversion technique to assess the exposure dose rate due to environmental radiation especially from terrestrial sources was developed. For a 2x2 inch cylindrical NaI(T1) scintillation detector, pulse-height spectra were obtained for gamma-rays of energy up to 3 MeV by Monte Carlo simulation. Based on the simulation results and the experimentally fitted energy resolution, dose conversion factors were calculated by a numerical decomposition method. These calculated dose conversion factors were, then, electronically implemented to a developed dose conversion unit (DCU) which is a microprocessor-controlled single channel analyzer (SCA) with variable discrimination levels. The simulated spectra were confirmed by measurement of several monoenergetic gamma spectra with a multichannel analyzer (MCA). The converted exposure dose rates from the implemented dose conversion algorithm in the DCU were also evaluated for a field test in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant at Kori as well as for several standard sources, and the results were in good agreement with separate measurement by a high pressure ionization chamber (HPIC) within a 6.4 % deviation.