Learning Web Design

I've recently finished year 12 at school for the summer, (I don't know what the American equivalent is) and we never exactly get great summer weather over here, so I'm always keen to acquire a new practical skill every year.

I do understand and appreciate that this certain skill isn't one that you can just learn over a week or so, but I'm really interested in learning; web design. So I'm reaching out to all of you at TekSocial to give me a helping hand. I've watched a few Dreamweaver HTML tutorials over the last few weeks, but I think I'm throwing myself in at the deep end and I'm really not grasping much of the information being fed to me. So what I'm really looking for is somebody to point me in the right direction. I am willing to pay for an online academic course, but at the moment I'm struggling to find a reliable source. Do any of you as writers or readers know web design? (if that's how you say it, apologies if not) Or at least know of a course of a good standard that will teach me the professional quality skills I need? 

For instance, some of you may have created your own website in the past, or helped out in designing one. Obviously I'm not asking you to sit at home and email me a step-by-step guide, but any information possible would be very much appreciated.  

Thanks in advance.