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This paper presents a novel visual educational configurable simulator for computer architecture and organization (COCONUT). By using the simulator students can create their own processor with an arbitrary architecture and simple organization on the register transfer level, write an assembly program to be executed on the processor and observe the instruction execution phases of the program on the processor. The students can create their processor by using the simulator of a computer system with fixed and configurable parts. The configurable part allows students to use the simulator for defining the instruction decoding of the processor operation unit and the content of the microprogram memory of the processor control unit. The simulator's usage was evaluated at the University of Belgrade—School of Electrical Engineering on two courses for two consecutive school years. The evaluation results showed that 80% of the students stated that the simulator helped them to better understand the course material and that they had a positive user experience with the simulator.

This article presents laboratory exercises and project assignments developed to teach concepts of concurrent and distributed programming in Java. The exercises and assignments cover important topics determined after an analysis of topics that are often taught in different universities. During the exercises, students reengineer the general purpose discrete event simulator named SLEEP (Simulation, Logic, Execution, prEsentation, Physics). A multilayer organization of the SLEEP simulator enables coverage of the important topics in a coherent manner. In order to support parallel execution in SLEEP students start to reengineer the simulator layers with an exercise related to concurrent programming, followed by two exercises related to distributed programming, and finish with an exercise related to grid computing. The exercises follow the principles of error management training and teach students what common errors are and how to overcome them. The article also describes a practical experience with the use of SLEEP on a concurrent and distributed programming course over a 3-year period. The results show a positive impact on both students' satisfaction and performance. ß