[machinelabo]

Pay attention to how clearly information was presented in those days. I've not come across any media today that can present information in systematic and concise manner without trying hard to grab my attention, perhaps a handful of YT channels are an exception.

[AshamedCaptain]

A bit of survivorship bias here, if I may... the really crappy stuff from any non-current era does not get posted and reposted periodically here.

[1shooner]

Right, consider the thousands of hours of online technical training content on Udemy, etc. Much of that is very clear, well-paced, and precise. Conversely, watching any number of peppy newsreels on e.g. British Pathe[1]. They're just as blaring and superficial as any contemporary correlate.

[1]https://www.britishpathe.com/

[machinelabo]

It’s unfair to compare a college course to traditional TV media. College courses in the 80’s were similar to Coursera too.

I urge you to watch news channels from the 80s. Literally every TV media was degraded from Discovery channel to History channel.

[donw]

I don't think so.

My father taught English, and had a long-standing rant about how universities since about the 80s or so produced writers that were amazingly talented at using a thousand words to say absolutely nothing.

[agumonkey]

40s naval engineering videos are the peak pedagogical value. It's ELI5 yet describing analog computing or sophisticated mechanical engineering devices. Then there's US college videos about waves and impedance.. another piece of beauty.