A search engine allows the user to quickly find pages containing certain words. If the site will have a lot of information separated into many different pages, it would be a good idea to have a search engine.

htdig

example

Requires

Unix host with GNU development tools
lots of disk space (figure 15KB per file)

Map

An interactive map could give the user a visual picture of locations and information about them. Making a map will require specialized software and data.

Mapserver

example

Requires

A whole bunch of dependencies including libgd, libproj, and others
Unix host with GNU development tools
lots of disk space for temp files

Calendar

A calendar lists upcoming events. Example. I don't know any calendar programs -- will have to research this.

Questions:

What do you want users to be able to do [on the site|with the information]

Do you have an ISP lined up?

What services do they offer?

If not, want one?
- Sonic.net (local, good rep)
- Sandwich.net (buddy's server, cheap, low filespace)
- etc...
- How much are you willing to spend?
- How much space will you need?

Do you have a domain name?

Do you want one, or would you accept having an address that looks like "someISP.net/~username"?

Who will maintain the website after the class is finished?

and will they need some basic training?

Would you require some sort of database?

They are not going to know this; rephrase question

Would you like to know how many visitors there are to the site?

Would you want to track individual visitors to give them personalized content?

What information would you like visitors to be able to send you?

Would you like a guest book or forum for comments? A forum could be a discussion board (threaded, interactive) rather than a guestbook (generally post once and forget about it).

How about a search engine? If the content is text-heavy and legal terms are hidden in various pages, something like htdig will come in handy.

Are you interested in a calendar of events?

Are you interested in a slide show of images?