I think more important than URL shorteners is URL structure. It should work like a directory, where you can intuitively guess what subdirectories there are.

This NYT link is actually pretty good. year/month/day/category/title is pretty nice. The query parameter ruins it, but that's kind of unavoidable if you want a reproducible link with extra data. Usually you can omit query parameters and the URL should still work.

That matters too, but those solve different problems.

Not saying you're wrong, just wondering if it was an option to take a picture of the screen using your phone. In my experience, that's how students tend to capture such info when it isn't provided to them electronically.

"Rare" doesn't mean "non-existent". Some people (such as yourself) might indeed need to type links in manually on a regular basis, but for most people it is quite rare.