In almost all cases, a HLL does the job better if you understand what you are asking the HLL to do at the assembly language level. There are times when you have to descend into the basement and fix something in assembly language by hand, when even C does not provide the specific tool that you need, or where you have to figure out how to say something in C to get the primitive result that you really want. The real working environment will use C, but where assembly has unmatched value is in teaching you precisely how digital computers handle data. HLLs get a large part of their advantage from insulating you from all of the nit-picking little details of data handling. On the other hand, if what you want is to learn specifically what is going on in the machine, pick nits.
Assembly language is the language of choice.
This being one of our principal objectives, assembly language is essential to this course even if you never use it again. The assembly language that we are going to use is the 68000's full complement of assembly instructions. You will find it described in good detail in the Motorola Programmer's Handbook. The three computer assignments, which comprise two extended exercises and a substantial project, are engineering software design efforts. To get credit, something must be made to work.