1.8 - Publish & Unpublish As Needed
When you are ready for students to start accessing your course, you'll need to publish your course. And you'll also need to make sure that the individual modules and items that you want them to access are published. And if there's anything that you don't want them to access, you'll want to make sure those items are unpublished.
Once you've published your course, send an email to your students letting them know that they can find your course on Canvas now.