Ongoing developments in e-learning, improved internet accessibility and increased digital citizenry provide exciting opportunities to integrate effective classroom pedagogies with online educational technologies, creating mixed-mode courses to enhance student engagement and facilitate greater autonomous learning. This research examines pre-service teacher education students' perceptions of the effectiveness of experiential and digitally-mediated tools which take them beyond the constraints of traditional lecture-type delivery. Quantitative and qualitative results from distance and face-to-face cohorts show the value the students ascribe to tools employed in a modified language course. These are discussed in relation to reported changes in students' proficiency in the target language and culture, and their teaching confidence, using principles for effective instructed language learning as an interpretive lens. The data provide valuable insights into features that enhanced the students' digitally-mediated learning experiences in this blended delivery course, including the impact of when, where and how they could engage with course material.