The purpose of the following article is to discuss the integration of computer mediated communication into a French writing course and to report on the assessment methodology used in order to gather students' perspectives. The online course component was introduced in the Fall of 2003 in order to enhance students' learning by introducing collaborative writing projects, and as a result, to encourage them to write on a regular basis. The intent of the new pedagogical paradigm was to create a student-centred environment where socio-constructivist and cognitive principles would be infused into the teaching of French writing (L2 setting). A design experiment methodology based on students' perspectives was used to continuously test and refine the online component of the course. This process assessment helped in the development of our final course model and tested the quality of our teaching.