This paper reports on how simulated communication with the client via different channels has been integrated into a general translation course. It examines the results of two studies conducted during a course offered to Polish students doing a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics and specialising in translation. The aim of the fi rst study, in which the students communicated with a simulated client (the instructor) using individual e-mail accounts in the fi nal translation assignment and a discussion forum on a Moodle-based platform in all the other assignments, was to investigate the students’ performance in the exchange with the client. For this purpose, the questions the students asked the client were analysed in terms of their topic and relevance in a given translation situation; the lack of questions concerning important extra-textual information was also noted. The fi rst study additionally probed the students’ views concerning this aspect of the course: the students completed a survey in which they were asked how useful they thought being able to work with the client would be in their future jobs as translators and how effectively the skill had been practised during the course. In the second study, the mode of communication with the client for in-class assignments was changed in such a way that three different e-mail accounts were used instead of one discussion forum. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether the changes in the mode of communication had increased student participation and to probe the students’ perceptions of the modifi ed course using a survey.