Background/purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an Effective Communication course with enhanced student engagement on preservice teachers' communication skills and empathic tendency levels. Materials/methods: The study adopted a mixed-methods design where the one-group pretest-posttest design was used. Results: It was found that the Effective Communication course with enhanced student engagement had a significant impact on the empathic tendency levels of preservice teachers, albeit with a small effect size. However, the impact of the course on communication skills was not statistically significant. The preservice teachers found the course efficient in contributing to their theoretical knowledge about communication and improving their attitudes and basic skills. Conclusion: It was concluded that enhancing student engagement through an Effective Communication course had a limited contribution in optimizing the communication skills and empathic tendency levels of future teachers.