In this course we use Node, not as a server but for these three main purposes:

• an execution environment for our build process, meaning browserify or webpack (more on those on the project page).
• an outer dependency module loader using NPM.
• an entry point into our build process by using NPM scripts.

This means that we're not really using Node in the normal sense, since we're not building a Node app.

For more information on the last of our three bullet points above, check out this video:

...and you would also do well to read Elin's blog post on the subject.