Looking for Equations

Although there are lots of differences between versions 6.0 and 8.0, the ones that come to mind that are important for learning FPGA design are the enhancements to TimeQuest. If you are doing much with timing analysis, then do it with the latest version of TimeQuest. (And definitely use TimeQuest instead of the Classic Timing Analyzer unless your course requires use of the older timing analyzer.) SOPC Builder and Nios tools and Quartus features for incremental compilation also have changed a lot, but I doubt that you care about any of those right now.

You can download version 8.0 from https://www.altera.com/support/software/download/sof-download_center.html. You probably have a license that will work with any version. You can keep 6.0 installed (it's OK to have more than one version on the same machine) if you want the option of going back to something closer to your antiquated course instructions.