When I was in college, we took a hybrid approach. We used a real CPU (6809), but instead of using a real computer (since 6809-based computers were not as common

When I was in college, we took a hybrid approach. We used a real CPU (6809), but instead of using a real computer (since 6809-based computers were not as common as Z80 or 6502-based ones), we used an educational kit designed and built by the professor who taught the course. This kit could be programmed via the serial console using the built-in debugger (or monitor, as they were called back then).