J. EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING RESEARCH, Vol. 23(2) 151–179, 2000 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SCAFFOLDING USE IN A RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INVOLVINGTHE WORLD WIDE WEB* BARBARA A. GREENE University of Oklahoma SUSAN M. LAND The Pennsylvania State University ABSTRACT A qualitative analysis of eighteen college students using different types of scaffolding (instructional supports) while working on a World Wide Web (WWW) project was conducted. Four different support mechanisms were examined: a) WWW resources; b) procedural guidelines for the instructional activity; c) student-student interactions; and d) instructor-student interac- tions. Three major findings related to use of the WWW as a resource-based learning environment are discussed: a) the utility of scaffolds and WWW resources seem dependent on the ability of learners to readily grasp how the scaffold or resource could help them; b) learners’ preconceptions and search strategies were difficult to alter, despite ongoing evidence that searching was not leading to project clarification; and c) social scaffolding based on face to face dialogue with instructors and peers was critical to helping learners manage the complexity of the open- ended project. Implications related to the role of instructional scaffolding in encouraging shared meaning and learning with WWW resources are considered. Recent perspectives on learning argue for learning environments that provide opportunities for meaningful problem-solving in more realistic contexts than those commonly found in traditional classroom settings [1, 2]. Many have touted * A version of this article was presented as a poster at the 1999 American Educational Research Asso- ciation, Montreal Canada. 151  2000, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.