Funasset’s batch printing software, SilentPrint, is now used by Southampton Solent University (SSU) to print student assignments submitted to Turnitin.

Turnitin provides educational establishments with an online system for submitting assignments, checking them for plagiarism and marking them electronically. Despite its advantages, Turnitin offers limited printing functionality for anyone wishing to mark paper assignments. Individual Turnitin assignments can be printed, but if large volumes are involved (which is often the case) the process of opening each one then hitting the print button can be extremely tedious and time-consuming.

SSU discovered this printing "short-fall" soon after integrating Turnitin. Philip Pine, Business Development Manager for Funasset explains: "Some SSU staff preferred to mark student assignments on paper instead of using Turnitin’s electronic marking facility. Until SilentPrint was installed, the only way they could do this was to print assignments one by one – completely impractical if hundreds of assignments were involved!"

SilentPrint is installed on a central SSU server, and configured to monitor specific folders for Turnitin-generated Zip files containing related assignments. When a Zip file is detected, all assignments are automatically output on a printer associated with the folder being monitored. Each assignment is also stapled (using a stapling unit on the printers) and a header sheet printed so each batch of assignments is kept separate and easily identified.

Stephen Harding, Learning Systems Support Manager for SSU concludes: "SilentPrint has been extremely easy to use, requiring minimal configuration and training for the operatives. Not only that, it also helps us to make certain that printed assignments are complete and match those received from Turnitin – something that was difficult to ensure prior to SilentPrint being used."

Organisations throughout the world use SilentPrint to dramatically reduce the time they spend and the associated costs involved in printing large volumes of documents. Many document formats are supported including PDF and DOC, and four versions are available (SilentPrint Pro used for Turnitin solutions).

Anyone wishing to try the batch printing functionality of SilentPrint can do so by downloading a fully functional installation here.