Moodle users, or rather their user accounts, are dealt with in Users | Accounts. Before we start, it is important to understand the difference between authentication and enrolment.
Moodle users have to be authenticated in order to log in to the system. Authentication grants users access to the system through login where a username and password have to be given (this also applies to guest accounts where a username is allotted internally). Moodle supports a significant number of authentication mechanisms, which are discussed later in detail.
Enrolment happens at course level. However, a user has to be authenticated to the system before enrolment to a course can take place. So, a typical workflow is as follows (there are exceptions as always but we will deal with them when we get there):
1. Create your users.
2. Create your courses (and categories).
3. Associate users to courses and assign roles.
Again, this sequence demonstrates nicely how intertwined courses, users, and roles are...