It is difficult to build a course when the student view won't show me any of what I've built because the course hasn't opened yet. I found a post about this from a couple of years ago and the staff response was to temporarily change the course start date, but I don't have that power as faculty, and even if I did it would be a mess if I tried it after students had already begun to enroll.
The student view should show what the page would look like to a student after a course has opened, regardless of the actual start date of the class.