I was wondering if this feature exists within Canvas already, but if not it would be extremely helpful to be able to pin certain Discussion posts as the instructor to the top of the message board. - Right now I have to sort it by likes and like my own post.

I will often give my students a prompt or examples in the Discussion itself rather than just in the instructions so that they can reply directly to the post and keep the conversations organized. 

(Additionally, it would be extremely helpful to be able to then import these pinned posts when I import a course/discussion for another class or a new semester.)