<b>Student Perspectives on Learning Analytics Dashboards:</b><b>A Cross-Program and Country Analysis (PREPRINT)</b>

This preprinted study explores and compares student perspectives on Learning Analytics (LA) dashboards in higher education, focusing on the features students find most useful for supporting their learning. Using a survey methodology, we collected data from three groups consisted of educational science students from Germany (N=61), ICT students (N=196) and medical students (N=511), both from Croatia in 2022/23. A Principle Component Analysis was used to identify 6 factors from a questionnaire with 45 items. The subscales were validated using Cronbach's α. Our findings indicate that students appreciate LA dashboard features related to organizing study life, short-term planning and monitoring of learning, while they express caution towards features enabling comparison and competition with peers. Using ANOVA, significant differences were found between the three groups for the 4 factors COMPARISONS, PREDICTIONS, STUDY LIFE and EXTRACURRICULAR. Our study concludes that it is important to consider student preferences and the educational, as well as cultural context.