Fundamentals of UX Design

Great online course for beginners, by Sarah Kahn, UX Engineer for Adzerk:

https://tutsplus.com/course/ux-design/

I specially liked the simple quote in the intro video: User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service.. - and - UX Design is the art and science of making that experience effective and satisfying. By the other hand, UX designers are modern painters who give stuff a more friendly and usable Look & Feel. 

As a side note - if Sarah ever reads this - I hope they consider a smoother design/theme for their current website, Adzerk (A responsive architecture would be good too).