Hi @jbritschgi ...
At the Canvas account level where users can be added to the Canvas environment, it's possible to send notifications...per this Guide:
How do I create and add users to an account?
Refer to the information in the light blue box of that Guide and also the illustration under the heading "Add User Details".
Once users are added to the account, they can be added to courses with roles like Student, Teacher, TA, etc. If users are manually added to a course, they should get an e-mail notification that they've been added to the course and need to accept the course invitation. If I recall correctly, in my former role as a Canvas administrator, my team worked with our IT department (they sent over our course shells and enrollments from our SIS into Canvas), I *think* they had it set up to send an e-mail notification to users when they were added to courses via the SIS import process that Canvas also has.
Other folks here in the Community will probably chime in with more specifics, but I hope the info I've provided will be of some help.
