Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a direct impact on STEM education development, specifically in Computer Science and Information Technology studies, which are offered by most universities worldwide due to their importance for a countrys development. The female workforce in ICT fields is an important asset for the development of a country. However, many universities in different countries still lack enrolled female students in ICT fields compared to male students. Many factors affect the enrollment of undergraduate female in ICT courses. Researchers in developed countries reported most of these factors, however there are only few studies done in the Middle East countries to identify these factors. This paper reviewed female students engagement with STEM or computer technology (CT) courses, and factors that affect their enrolments are discussed.
There is a low number of female student’s enrollment in Computer Science field in many countries. Much effort has been done to motivate females to study computer science, but it is still not enough. Serious games are effective tools for learning, thus can be used to motivate females to study technical subjects such as computer science. However, gender preferences affect the motivation to play specific types of digital games, but only a few studies have attempted to design games specifically for females. In addition, most games with computer science content do not appeal to teenage girls, and failed to explain how the social and cultural content of the game described the game experience of female players. However, studies have discovered the impact of engagement in the game based learning environment., In this paper, we discuss female’s preferences in digital games and the social and cultural factors that influence female’s engagement in Information and Communication Technology or specifically computer science studies. We propose a gender-based serious game engagement’s model for teaching computer science.