The general idea was, in your office there was a thing called a terminal. This was basically just a keyboard and screen which was connected to a mini computer elsewhere in the university via wires.
In my case, in the late 80s, a VT100 compatible (probably VT302 or similar) terminal in the Uni library connected to an Amdahl mainframe running the rather niche MTS operating system.
When I moved into an office (in 1990, IIRC), our terminal was a BBC model B with a terminal emulator ROM which could do either VT100 or Tektronik modes, connected to the VAX cluster downstairs. I still remember my DECNet address (19681::MNO).
I remember clearly the wonders of Gopher, and, later, websites that ALL looked like the ones in the OP. (I wasn't sure that the WWW stuff would ever catch on given that it only seemed to do what Gopher did!
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