Q. What will students see when I publish my course?

Students will be able to see any of the tools you have enabled for them on the left navigation, and they will see any Announcements you have posted under the Announcement tab.  Students will not be able to see anything you have not enabled and not published.  For example, if you create an Assignment, but do not publish it, students will not see it under the Assignment tab or under the Syllabus tab, even if you enable those tabs for students to see.