I currently use course meta linking to enrol students to certain areas (they are enrolled through a cohort onto a general course, and meta-linked to each individual year of that course etc.) and it works pretty well.
If you don't want them to be enrolled throughout the year you could time limit the enrollment?
Changing the course to guest access is also an option so it wouldn't clog up your "My Courses" page. You'd just need to list the "guest" courses somewhere (the front page probably).