Participants in the curriculum group took part in a structured, comprehensive curriculum consisting of a 1 hour didactic cognitive component, a 1 hour didactic non-technical (team-based skills) component, and 6 hours of structured technical skills practice in peg transfer, intracorporeal suture, and VR simulator tasks. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with experts after the didactic sessions, and received subjective feedback from circulating residents in addition to objective feedback in the technical skills tasks.

Participants in the control (self-directed) group took part in 8 hours of self-directed learning with written materials for cognitive and non-technical skills components and unstructured surgical simulation practice of technical skills with only objective feedback from the simulator for the VR tasks or time for the peg transfer and intracorporeal suture tasks.

Participants' basic laparoscopic knowledge was assessed regarding topics such as advantages and disadvantages, patient selection considerations, equipment, anesthesia, patient positioning, pneumoperitoneum, and post-op care. Assessment was by a multiple choice test.

Participants' attitudes towards team based skills, namely team structure, leadership, situational awareness, and communication were assessed by the Team-STEPPS Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ).

Participants' technical skills were assessed as they performed peg transfer, intracorporeal suture, and virtual reality simulator tasks (grasping, cutting, and clipping). Peg transfer and intracorporeal suture were assessed by time and errors, while VR tasks were assessed by the simulator's pre-set metrics.