Sometimes we may wish to give students advanced access to materials in a Canvas course, for example the students needing access a few weeks before the start of term so that they can engage with an activitiy such as a field trip.

Unless otherwise advised, all standard taught modules have an identified start date of 1st August for a given academic year. So provided your course has been developed and published then from this date students can start going in and accessing your course. (Typically staff only hit the Publish button on their course just prior to Welcome week, so it just means doing this slightly earlier). For Semester 2 courses, again this have a start date of 1st August so these can be Published whenever required. If you need your students to have access before 1st August then please talk to IT Services who can advise.
For standard taught modules student enrolments feed into Canvas automatically from information contained in Banner, and therefore enrolments may be staggered based upon external factors such as module selection, payment of fees etc. But you should see student names start to appear incrementally through the People area of your Canvas courses even before the course is published.
Before publishing your course it is worth having a think about what content you want students to see at the outset of your course. By using the Publish control in the Modules area and on individual items such as Pages it is possible to restrict access to certain materials. You may also with to publish an Announcement or make a temporary Welcome page to let your students know how to engage with Canvas within this advanced 'pre-start' period.