E-learning packaged platforms have become highly popular in Japanese tertiary English education as tools to assist students with completing standardized English certifications such as TOEIC and IELTS. However, little research has been conducted into the experiences of students with newer communication-oriented e-learning platforms. This paper assesses a class of Japanese undergraduate students who completed a year-long course of English study which made extensive use of one such e-learning platform. Students were surveyed regarding the benefits and drawbacks of their e-learning experiences, including the impacts on their overall English abilities and their opinions about the platform. The findings show that students primarily expressed appreciation for the increased opportunity to expand their learning with well-organized and more contextually diverse content. The primary drawbacks included some students finding the difficulty level to be inappropriately high. The results also give instructors valuable insights into how to incorporate communication-oriented e-learning platforms into their classrooms.