@estherschindler In the 1990s I was involved in a big push for "distance learning" between UC Berkeley Extension and Pacific Bell. Primary Rate ISDN (~1.5Mbps, high bandwidth in those days), repurposed corporate teleconferencing setups, you needed a techie on both ends. The end result was not that different from Zoom--for a lot of things it sucked, just like Zoom, but at least you could go to class without driving 60 miles. And anyone can set up a Zoom session nowadays.
@ImagineThat I wrote an article for Network Magazine circa 1997 about what it took to set up videoconference rooms.
Very different times.