This is an introductory page for a Coursera  online course for interested people.  An email message contained direct access to several free courses online, one of which was this one entitled Metadata, taught by Jeffrey Pomeranz of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  It will begin on July 14, 2014, will last for eight weeks, and requires about six hours of work per week with readings.  I am definitely interested in participating in this course.

Metadata is aggregated data.  According to the  course introduction, we are all familiar with it.

Theoretically, anybody with access to a computer can get a free college education online, though I have not heard of it.  It may be that some personal connections are needed for it to really work well.