We report direct observations of Rabi oscillations and self-induced transparency in a quantum dot optical amplifier operating at room temperature. The experiments make use of pulses whose durations are shorter than the coherence time which are characterized using Cross-Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating. A numerical model which solves the Maxwell and Schrödinger equations and accounts for the inhomogeneously broadened nature of the quantum dot gain medium confirms the experimental results. The model is also used to explain the relationship between the observability of Rabi oscillations, the pulse duration and the homogeneous and inhomogeneous spectral widths of the semiconductor.