Have you heard the word metadata but have no idea what it refers to, what type of content is found in metadata, how it is being used and why to use it? This asynchronous e-learning course can be completed online, at the desired pace and in the absence of an instructor.

Overview

Every day, experimental scientists create and store high-throughput data. This data is then analysed by bioinformaticians who store the results. This mass of data has been referred to as 'data tsunami,' a term that accurately conveys the scale, velocity, and disruptive potential of the data collection and storage. How does metadata play a role in the efficient management of this data?

Metadata has been described as "data about data", but what exactly is meant by this? What type of information about the data does metadata contain? Why provide metadata at all?

In this 1-h course, you will learn what metadata is, some elements of metadata, common uses of metadata in bioinformatics, in order to understand why metadata are essential.

Audience

This e-learning course is for students, postdocs, researchers, and data managers from any scientific environment (academia, facilities, companies, etc.) interested in metadata.

Competencies

At the end of the course, participants should be able to:

Describe the use of metadata in bioinformatics
Understand why metadata are essential

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the participants are expected to:

explain what metadata is
identify metadata content standards
recall common uses of metadata in bioinformatics
explore uses of metadata

Prerequisites

Knowledge / competencies

Before the course, you should meet the learning outcomes of, or have taken:

Vocabularies for bioinformatics
and Interoperable File Formats
and Identifiers in Bioinformatics

Technical

None.

Time required

1 hour

Instructions

Open the module in a browser tab. As resources are constantly evolving, some of the images may not correspond to the current web site.
Open a separate browser tab to carry out the exercises and be able to answer the quizzes.
If you leave a module before the end, your score will be reset to 0.

Metadata in Bioinformatics

Additional information

You are welcome to register to the SIB courses mailing list to be informed of all future courses and workshops, as well as all important deadlines using the form here.

Please note that participation in SIB courses is subject to our general conditions.

For more information, please contact training@sib.swiss.