By Jay ShahCarlton Trail College and TrackPoint.ai have partnered to bring AI-powered experiential learning to students across the College’s programs, giving learners a place to practice real workplace conversations and get feedback before they face them for real.
Carlton Trail College serves east-central Saskatchewan from campuses in Humboldt, Watrous, Wynyard, and the Four Winds Learning Centre in Punnichy. Through the province’s Made in Saskatchewan Technology program, the College implemented TrackPoint with select programs as an experiential learning platform, adding hands-on practice to instruction that students can access on their own schedule.
The short version
- Carlton Trail College partnered with TrackPoint.ai and implemented the platform with select programs as an experiential learning tool.
- Students get practice verbal simulations assigned (interviews, presentations, etc.), practice on the TrackPoint platform, and get immediate feedback after every attempt.
- Instructors can build scenarios from the College’s own course material and see how each cohort is progressing.
- The partnership came together through the Made in Saskatchewan Technology program, connecting a Saskatchewan institution with a Saskatchewan-built platform.
About Carlton Trail College
Carlton Trail College delivers post-secondary and trades training, academic upgrading, English language training, continuing education, and industry training across east-central Saskatchewan. Workforce development sits at the centre of that work: the College’s job is to send people into the regional economy ready to do the work.
That mandate is what makes experiential learning more than a buzzword. A graduate heading into a placement, a shop floor, or a client-facing role needs more than course completion. They need to have already handled the situation once.
Why experiential learning is hard to scale
Most institutions agree that students learn by doing. Delivering that at scale is the hard part.
Practical, hands-on practice usually depends on scarce resources: an instructor in the room, a scheduled lab, a placement host willing to take a learner who is not quite ready. Across multiple campuses and a wide range of programs, those constraints multiply. Students end up with a few supervised attempts, often at the end of a term, and the rest of their learning stays theoretical until they are on the job.
The conversational side of work is where that shows up most. Completing a job interview, explaining a procedure to a client, handling a frustrated customer, working through a safety issue with a coworker: these are learned by doing, and they are the hardest things to schedule practice for.
How Carlton Trail College implemented TrackPoint
The College put TrackPoint in front of students in select programs as a practice layer alongside existing instruction. Students work through realistic scenarios by voice, get feedback right after each attempt, and can run the same scenario again as many times as they need.
Because the practice runs in a browser with nothing to book, it works across a multi-campus college. A student in Watrous and a student in Humboldt get the same scenario and the same standard of feedback, and instructors are not trying to schedule identical practice sessions in four locations.
In the College’s own words, the partnership “gave the College an opportunity to test emerging technology in an applied learning environment,” reflecting what it describes as a practical approach to innovation: adopting technology where it supports student learning, while working directly with a regional company.
What AI experiential learning looks like in a post-secondary program
- Scenarios built from your own course material. Use an existing case, script, or rubric and it becomes a practice scenario scored against your criteria, usually in minutes.
- Practice by voice, with a counterpart that responds. Students hold a real back-and-forth conversation rather than reading a script or reading an assignment.
- Feedback on content and delivery. Students see whether they covered what mattered and how they came across, then run it again.
- Unlimited attempts, no scheduling. Students practice when they have time, and a full cohort can practice at once.
- Instructor visibility. A dashboard shows who has practiced, how scores moved across attempts, and where a cohort shares a gap.
- Data for program reporting. Completion and competency data can be exported to support program review and accreditation.
Why this matters for post-secondary institutions
Experiential learning is one of the clearest expectations on post-secondary programs right now, and also one of the most expensive to deliver. Partnerships like this one are a practical answer: keep instructors and placements for what only they can do, and give students a way to get the repetitions that used to be impossible to schedule.
TrackPoint is used by health-sciences and business programs as well as corporate training teams. For institutions weighing student instructional value, that combination matters.
Carlton Trail College’s participation also says something about regional innovation. A Saskatchewan college and a Saskatchewan platform worked together to improve how students prepare for the workforce, and both sides are better for it.
Frequently asked questions
What is an experiential learning platform?
Software that lets students learn by doing rather than only reading or watching. In TrackPoint’s case, students hold realistic spoken conversations with an AI counterpart and receive feedback after each attempt.
Can instructors build scenarios from existing course material?
Yes. Instructors send a case, script, or rubric they already use, and it becomes a practice scenario scored against their own criteria.
How do instructors track student progress?
Through a dashboard showing who has practiced, how scores changed across attempts, and where a cohort has a common gap. Completion data can be exported for program reporting.
Does this replace instructors, labs, or placements?
No. It adds practice before those experiences, so students are not attempting something for the first time when it counts.
Does it work across multiple campuses?
Yes. Practice runs in a browser with nothing to schedule, so students at different campuses get an identical scenario and the same standard of feedback.
The bottom line
Carlton Trail College set out to give students more hands-on practice than a schedule allows, and built a partnership to do it. Read the College’s announcement to learn more.
Building experiential learning into your programs? Talk to our team to see it running on your own course material, or try the free demo.
