Dashboard courses are ordered alphabetically by course name and your role in the course; nicknames and course codes do not apply to course ordering. Courses with instructor roles are listed first, followed by TA roles and student roles.
Note: If you want to remove the default course card setting, you can customize the course list and manually select your favorite courses to display in the Dashboard. When you favorite at least one course, the Dashboard will only display favorited courses. Canvas will also continue to automatically favorite new course enrollments.
I find color coding them helps me easily and quickly choose the classes I use most.
