I think a great learning experience would be for you to sit down and try to build one or two of your students’ sites from scratch. Get a couple of the input elements to work in the way you intend, and get the visuals working.
I think that’ll answer your question in a more profound way than I or any of the other commenters can :)
Written by Tom Clark
Fluid Dynamicist at the core, lover of chaos theory. Experienced scientist, developer and team lead working in wind energy — from startups to heavy industry.