Hi Jason

There are different types of events

Global, Group, Course and User events that appear on Calendars.

Depending on your role you can add these event types events to the Calendar by selecting Calendar > New event. (as a student you could add a User and Group event)

Course events such as Assignment due dates are automatically added from the activity settings.

It is possible to add a calendar block in a course - this is called the Training Calendar which is a smaller version of the calendar in Calendar menu.

The events are also able to be shown on the dash board under Upcoming Events

I have added some events to the user Jason Cochran on the demo site for you to try out.

regards

Craig