I have a question about the order discussions appear on the Index page.  I thought discussions with the most recent posts appeared at the top in date order, then discussions with no posts in the order they were created.   Instead, discussions with no posts can appear before discussions with a recent post.  Is that intended?

This is how it's explained in the documentation How do I use the Discussions Index Page? - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).  "Discussions with replies are ordered by most recent activity. Discussions with no replies are ordered by creation date."

It seems to me that last semester, all the discussions with recent posts sorted to the top of the Discussions page, but this semester, they are not.  This happens whether or not Discussions Redesign is turned on.