AbstractThe Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) requires that graduates of postgraduate degrees have ‘specialised knowledge and skills for research, and/or professional practice and/or further learning’. Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry (ASAR) accreditation standards now emphasise that medical sonography graduates need to graduate with research capacity in addition to clinical skills and align with AQF framework. To meet these requirements, University of South Australia medical sonography programs, which are delivered externally and online, underwent a major curriculum redesign and changes implemented in 2015. Research Skills Development Framework (RSDF) was embedded across the program to develop sonography‐specific research‐minded thinking for clinical reasoning. RSDF is a conceptual model utilising six facets of enquiry which are ‘embark and clarify’, ‘find and generate’, ‘critically evaluate’, ‘organise’, ‘synthesise and analyse’ and ‘communicate’. This paper reports the experience with RSDF in the online environment to develop problem solving skills, critical thinking and clinical reasoning in one clinical course within the programs, that is, the obstetric and gynaecologic sonography course. This process can be easily translated to the face to face clinical environment and may assist clinical supervisors in clinical supervision and training.